Text/Qiuzi Review/Ziyang Proofreading/Zhiqiu
In the context of the global chip shortage, all countries are actively deploying the chip industry, and the chip foundry giant TSMC has become a hot commodity, and many countries are competing to invite it to build factories locally.
Among them, Japan, which has been silent in the semiconductor field for many years, finally ushered in a new move, successfully inviting TSMC to build a special process wafer factory in Japan.
Establish a 28nm production line
According to the author's understanding, TSMC mainly establishes a 28nm process production line in Japan. The plan is to start construction in 2022 and is expected to enter the mass production stage in 2024.
Not only that, TSMC will also enjoy a subsidy policy to build factories in Japan, alleviating the cost of TSMC's construction of factories in Japan.
Why did Japan invite TSMC to build a factory? The main reason is that under the background of the global chip shortage of that cannot be alleviated, Japan's automobile industry has suffered a huge impact, and Sony's imaging chips have also been affected.
Therefore, Japan urgently needs TSMC's help, and TSMC has always wanted to build factories in other regions due to the energy shortage in Taiwan, my country, so the two sides hit it off.
In addition, Japan invited TSMC to build a factory and another main purpose was to revive Japan's chip manufacturing industry. December 27 Zhongguancun Online News, in order to achieve its goal, Japan will invest 10 trillion yen in the chip industry in the next ten years, or approximately US$88 billion. If TSMC develops its semiconductor business in Japan smoothly, it will receive more financial support.
However, if Japan's semiconductor industry wants to restore its former glory and enter the first echelon of the world, it should develop advanced chips. For example, the United States, in order to have the initiative in the global chip field, invited TSMC to build a 5nm production line locally.
Nowadays, the new factory planned by TSMC and Sony mainly produces 22nm and 28nm chips. This is already the top technology for Japan's semiconductor industry, but for TSMC, this is the technology from 10 years ago.
It seems that TSMC has treated Japan and the United States differently in terms of building factories.
Why did TSMC use technology from Japan from 10 years ago?
In fact, TSMC does not treat the factory differently when building a factory, but Japan needs 22nm-28nm chips more. According to Japanese researcher Shishiro Fukao, pure electric vehicles will become the mainstream in the future and will drive the demand for related automotive chips. The 22nm-28nm chip is still widely used in the field of new energy vehicles and industrial equipment.
Not only that, 22nm-28nm chips are mature processes and have relatively low production costs. For Japanese companies, they will reduce cost expenditures.
It is precisely because 22nm-28nm has many advantages that it is highly favored by the Japanese side.
For TSMC, the benefits generated by building mature process production lines in Japan cannot be compared with advanced process production lines. But it is worth mentioning that Japan has gathered production bases of auto manufacturers such as Nissan and Toyota. At the same time, Kumamoto City, where TSMC built its factory, has a large number of core components factories such as semiconductors, batteries and motors. In the future, orders will be very large to TSMC.
For the Japanese semiconductor industry, TSMC's factory construction can not only strengthen Japan's semiconductor manufacturing industry, but also help the Japanese automobile industry continue to grow.
SMIC is not wrong in the path taken
From the above point of view, it is reasonable for Japan to develop a mature 22nm-28nm process, which also indirectly shows that SMIC is not wrong in the route taken.
Since 2021, international chip foundry giants have been studying new technologies and expanding advanced process production capacity, while SMIC has vigorously developed mature processes.
In terms of SMIC's layout in the second half of 2021, in November, it signed a cooperation agreement with the integrated circuit fund and Hailinwei to establish a Lingang joint venture, mainly producing 28nm chip products.
At the same time, after December, , SMIC spent 20.1 million yuan to buy a piece of commercial land, with the goal of expanding the production capacity of 28nm chips. After production, the monthly production capacity is expected to reach 40,000 pieces.
Whether for the Japanese semiconductor industry or for SMIC, developing mature process production capacity is undoubtedly the wisest choice.
On the one hand, the mature 28nm process chips of have much wider application range than 5nm and 7nm. They are not only in the field of pure electric vehicles, but also in the fields of aerospace, industrial manufacturing, etc., basically use mature chips with 28nm process.
On the other hand, developing mature process chips does not require relying on advanced manufacturing equipment, which can reduce cost expenditures and expand the advantages of mature processes above 28nm, which is a good choice.
to the end
Nowadays, chip giants such as TSMC, Samsung and Intel have all laid out production lines for the 28nm process worldwide. There is no doubt that the competition among chip manufacturers has shifted from advanced technology to mature technology.
For SMIC, which focuses on mature processes, will face greater challenges in the future and the competition will become increasingly fierce.
