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Due to the global chip shortage, many regions have focused on the semiconductor industry in the past two years, and my country's chip manufacturing problems have become even more prominent. In fact, "shortage of chips" "Core less soul" has been a very troublesome problem for my country's high-tech industry for a long time.
In the field of semiconductors, my country itself entered the game late, and it can be said that it has no advantage at all in terms of process or key equipment. Especially after the United States and the United States successively revised the "chip rules", my country's semiconductor industry has entered a period of stagnation for a considerable period of time.
Since my country has continuously achieved breakthroughs in the field of science and technology, Laos and the United States have taken the lead in signing the "Wassenaar Agreement" with some other Western regions, stipulating that the most advanced technology shall not be provided to our country. "Chip rules" are also within this scope. Under the comprehensive technical restrictions of the United States, not only is my country's high-end chip supply chain cut off, but the EUV lithography machines required to manufacture high-end chips are also unavailable.
The domestic semiconductor field has achieved many breakthroughs
Under this situation, with the call and support of the country, many companies and institutions have begun the process of self-research of domestic chips, and now there have been many breakthroughs. Our country has mastered mature processes above 28nm and can achieve mass production of 28nm and 14nm processes. The yield rate is also comparable to the international first-class level. Self-sufficiency is achieved to a certain extent.
In addition, in terms of chip design, there are many excellent manufacturers in my country. For example, everyone knows about Huawei's HiSilicon Kirin chip, including Alibaba Pingtouge, Unisoc, Ziguang Zhanrui, Biren, etc., who can design chips with 7nm process or above.
In terms of raw materials such as photoresist, Nanda Optoelectronics has successfully developed ArF photoresist that can enter the 7nm production line. The etching machines produced by China Micro Semiconductor have reached the international leading level, achieving comprehensive coverage of technology processes from 65nm to 5nm, and won orders from TSMC. TSMC’s 5nm production line uses etching machines from China Microelectronics.
In terms of chip manufacturing technology, SMIC has also successfully mastered the 7nm process technology and is currently conducting risk trial production.
Domestic chips report new breakthroughs
Recently, domestic chips have once again received good news. At the Semiconductor Technology Conference CSTIC 2022, Hong Feng, CEO of my country's semiconductor company ICLeague, announced that ICLeague is based on HITOC (Heterogeneous Integration Technology on Chip). ) technology has developed a 3D 4F DRAM architecture.
Xinmeng Technology was founded in 2018. It can be said to be a rising star among Chinese semiconductor companies. Hong Yu, president of Xinmeng Technology, graduated from North Carolina State University in the United States, majoring in materials science and engineering. He has worked for well-known companies such as Intel, SMIC, NXP, and Gita. Other core senior management members also have high academic qualifications and rich backgrounds in the semiconductor industry. It seems that it has become a consensus that ASML's EUV lithography machine must be used when
DRAM technology develops below the 10nm process. International manufacturers such as SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron have introduced EUV lithography machines on their 10nm nodes.
However, this technology of Xinmeng Technology can produce DRAM chips without using an EUV lithography machine. In addition, it does not require multiple pattern exposure SAQP (Self-Aligned Quadruple Patterning) steps, which can significantly reduce costs.
Hitoc means heterogeneous integration technology. It is a way of using advanced hybrid bonding technology to align different types of wafers or grains up and down to create a three-dimensional heterogeneous single chip.
Two years ago, Xinmeng Technology used Hitoc technology in Sunrise, an artificial intelligence chip integrated with memory computing.
What are the advantages of 3D HITOC 4F2 DRAM
This time the 3D 4f DRAM chip has five advantages.
First of all, it has lower word line delay, which makes high-frequency DRAM design easier; secondly, the bit line capacitance is also lower, which can reduce the difficulty of CMOS design and improve sensing redundancy; in addition, it is not affected by the Array process limitations, there is more room for development, because CMOS is designed independently on a wafer.
In addition, its manufacturing cost is lower. Compared with traditional DRAM, the area of a single Array transistor of the 3D HITOC 4F2 DRAM architecture is reduced by 33%. The manufacturing process is also compatible with the current chip process, reducing the number of double exposures and costs. Naturally it came down.
Last point, HITOC DRAM architecture has better technical scalability than traditional technology. When traditional DRAM is scaled down in large sizes, the SN capacitance value will inevitably decrease too quickly, which is also the main reason why its design becomes more difficult.
The HITOC DRAM architecture design is lower in both the K value requirements of high-K media and the SN process complexity, so its shrinkage space will be larger.
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will be a good breakthrough point for the current situation of my country's semiconductor industry, because it does not require the use of a photolithography machine and avoids technical barriers. But the current problem is that it is not clear which level of chips manufactured using this technology can benchmark against the international level.
But no matter what, it is always good to make progress. Standing still is equivalent to regressing, but even a little progress is of great significance. This means that our country has broken through another layer of shackles in the semiconductor field.
What do you think about this? Please leave your opinions in the comment area.
