Huawei develops tools to produce advanced chips
Source: atomic-energy.ru
Huawei Technologies has managed to start producing modern semiconductor components using advanced technological processes. The Chinese organization SiCarrier, which supplies the appropriate equipment, helps with this. The two companies have now co-authored a patent on the SAQP technology. It makes it possible not to use ASML lithographs, but to do it yourself.
Huawei does not have official access to advanced wafer production tools from American, European and Japanese manufacturers. The company is going to accelerate the development of such tools, but within China. Details under the cut.
What is Huawei planning to do?
According to several media reports, Huawei is building a giant research and development center near Shanghai, where it plans to develop tools for chip production. The company plans to create competition for ASML, Canon and Nikon systems, reports Nikkei.
According to Nikkei, the main task of this research and development center is to create lithography machines for the production of advanced chips. Today, partners Huawei, SMIC and Hua Hong cannot officially obtain lithography tools that will allow them to create logic chips using 14nm/16nm FinFET-based technologies and more advanced processes. But they can still buy lithography systems that support 28nm.
Informal channels for acquiring modern systems, so to speak, are narrowing. Therefore, Chinese companies, especially Huawei, are investing in developing their own tools. At the same time, the company is free to sell chips on the domestic market.
As for the center, it will be large-scale. The headquarters is located in the Qingpu district of Shanghai and is part of a larger campus that includes facilities for Huawei's HiSilicon chip design division, as well as wireless technology and smartphone R&D centers. The total investment in this campus is estimated at 12 billion yen (1.66 billion US dollars). Once completed, it will be able to accommodate more than 35,000 employees.
Of course, money and equipment alone are not enough. China needs capable specialists. Therefore, Huawei is little by little luring experienced professionals. However, it is clear that the company, like other Chinese organizations, can no longer hire US citizens and green card holders to lead their projects.
Although Huawei does not see the need for this. The fact is that previously ASML, Applied Materials, KLA and Lam Research hired Chinese, including as high-ranking managers. Since these same organizations have recently been forced to scale back their presence in China, Huawei and other companies may hire them to work on their own projects.
Huawei's R&D spending reached a record high of 164.7 billion yen ($22.756 billion) in 2023. This represents 23.4% of this company's total revenue.
Does the company have no equipment at all?
The material has repeatedly indicated that Chinese corporations do not have official channels for purchasing modern chip production tools. Therefore, the Celestial Empire conducts such transactions secretly, bypassing regulators.
Not just one company, but many electronics manufacturers from China do this. For example, SMIC, HuaHong, Nexchip, Silan Microelectronics and other companies purchase not only entire used lithography machines, but also individual components and spare parts for them.
In addition, Huawei is building new factories for the production of semiconductor elements and systems in China. It does this through intermediaries, hiding the connection of the final beneficiary with Huawei itself.
To operate white-label, the company is acquiring semiconductor manufacturers in China, including factories. As far as can be judged, Huawei plans to purchase equipment from Western companies through them, to which there is no “direct access.” We are talking about equipment and technologies that are based on US technologies. The state, according to representatives of the association, has allocated about $30 billion to support Huawei’s work.
As far as we can tell, despite some setbacks (in China, quite a few companies that receive government assistance for chip production are closing down), the chip design and production industry is growing. On the one hand, this is explained by the fact that the country has a large domestic market that supports manufacturers. On the other hand, there are countries that are interested in the development of these organizations.
