SMIC to create R&D team to investigate 3nm chip production for Huawei،
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is China's largest foundry, and because U.S. sanctions prevent it from obtaining extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment, SMIC must use its old lithography equipment in the deep ultraviolet (DUV) to build application processors using its 7nm node. This is how Huawei was able to obtain the Kirin 9000s 5G chipsets that it uses for the Mate 60 series. This chip stunned US lawmakers who thought they had blocked Huawei from receiving new 5G SoCs.
Last month we told you that a Financial Times report indicated that SMIC had discovered how to produce 5nm chips using DUV lithography. Lithography machines are used to etch extremely fine circuit patterns onto silicon wafers, and to accommodate the billions of transistors found in cutting-edge chips today, these lines must be thinner than a human hair human. Currently, the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are the only smartphones powered by an application processor made using the 3nm process node.
The Huawei Mate 60 Pro is powered by the 7nm Kirin 9000s SoC
To make this as simple as possible, a lower number of process nodes (e.g. 3nm versus 5nm) means that the transistors a chip is equipped with are smaller. Smaller transistors mean more of them can fit on a chip and that's the big problem; the higher the number of transistors in a chip, the more powerful and/or energy efficient that chip is. We could see mass production of 2nm chips in the second half of 2025 from Samsung Foundry and TSMC, while Intel's 18A chips will use a 1.8nm process node. By the end of 2027, we could see Samsung Foundry, TSMC and Intel creating chips using a 1.4nm node.
Earlier this year, the Financial Times said SMIC would use its DUV machines to build 5nm chips for Huawei and manufacture other chips, including those used for AI capabilities. By Wccftech, the minimum wage does not stop there. The latest report states that it has created a research and development team within the company to work on 3nm production. Without an EUV machine, this is going to be a difficult task, leading to low yields and high production costs. However, SMIC hopes to receive huge subsidies from the Chinese government.
SMIC's use of its DUV machines would require it to price its chips 50% higher than leader TSMC on comparable nodes. Unless the United States eases its restrictions, which is not likely in the near future, by the time SMIC can produce 3nm chips for Huawei and others, major foundries will be at 1, 4 nm, or even less. But Apple and Samsung should not relax. Even with a 7nm chip powering it, sales of the Mate 60 Pro in China have been huge.
