Expert says SMIC can make more powerful SoCs for Huawei using tech it already owns،
Chinese foundries cannot purchase extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines because of U.S. sanctions. China’s largest foundry, SMIC, is limited to using DUV (deep ultraviolet lithography) machines that it was allowed to purchase before the U.S. crackdown and some models can still be shipped to the company today. The only problem is that using DUV instead of EUV limits the SMIC to the production of 7nm chips, which is two generations of process nodes behind the 3nm chips currently produced by TSMC and Samsung Foundry.
This is important because, simply put, the lower the process node, the greater the number of transistors inside a chip. And the higher the number of transistors in a chip, the more powerful and/or energy efficient it is. Lithography machines etch circuit patterns smaller than the width of a human hair onto a silicon wafer. As chips become more complex and carry billions and billions of transistors (for example, the A17 Pro on the iPhone 15 Pro models has 19 billion transistors in each chip), circuit designs become smaller.
As we noted, SMIC is limited to producing 7nm chips such as the Kirin 9000s 5G chips used on the Huawei Mate 60 series. These SoCs allowed Huawei to produce its first phone with native 5G in three years, triggering a wave of nationalism in China. But what will Huawei do with its first flagship of 2024, the photography-focused P70, P70 Pro and P70 Art? The company can’t continue using 7nm chips forever. But there is a solution, even if it can be expensive.
Chip expert says Huawei may be able to get 5nm Kirin chips, although they will be expensive to produce
According to DigiTimes (via Wccftech), a chip expert named Burn Lin believes that SMIC can use DUV machines to make 5nm chips. This would require the foundry to use a technique called four-pronged structuring, which has several drawbacks. This is time consuming, reduces yield and is very expensive. The yield issue alone could leave Huawei without enough 5nm Kirin chipsets for its P70 series. But it may be the only way Huawei can improve the chips it uses in its flagship devices.
Between Canon’s announcement and the use of a quad configuration to make 5nm chips using DUV, the next time Huawei unveils a new device powered by a more competitive chipset, we shouldn’t be also surprised.
