[PConline Miscellaneous] When choosing a mobile phone, in addition to paying attention to appearance, design, and screen size, performance is certainly a factor that must be considered. Just like when a user buys a car, he will not choose to buy a 0.6-displacement car (non-mixed/

[PConline Miscellaneous ] When choosing a mobile phone, in addition to paying attention to appearance, design, and screen size, performance is certainly a factor that must be considered. Just like ordinary users who buy a car, they will not choose to buy a 0.6-displacement car (non-mixed/electrical), so the hardware configuration is the foundation, and a good experience needs to be based on powerful hardware performance. The comprehensive performance of a mobile phone is determined by the driver/system optimization of the processor, RAM, ROM and software, among which the mobile phone processor plays an important role. We have heard a lot of processors, but what is the knowledge here?

Technical Analysis Issue 55: How much do you know about Soc manufacturing process?

Issue 10: What is a mobile phone processor (Soc)? I will not explain much. Today I will only talk about the semiconductor production and foundry process, the birth process of processors, and the use and performance comparison of popular processor process processes in 2016.

. What types of semiconductor companies have

Semiconductor companies can be divided into 3 categories according to their business, .IDM. The characteristic of this model is that the key links of semiconductor manufacturing are completed by themselves, such as the development and manufacturing of kernels, and they also have the ability to design and production, such as Intel, STMicroelectronics, Hyundai, etc. .Fab, this model only focuses on process research and development and foundry. Just like TSMC, they do not design chips, they only help create chips. .Fabless, Fables companies only focus on IC design. They produce the designed "chips" to Fab companies to form products. With the development of the Internet of Things, electronic products are closer to personal needs, which leads to the Chipless model from Fabless. Companies under the Chipless model do not produce chips or sell chips. They only provide IP authorization, such as ARM and Imagination.

2. Dig into the global wafer production/foundry

Today, the largest foundry manufacturers in the world include: TSMC, Samsung, Intel, Globalfoundries (GF), UMC, SMIC, STMicroelectronics (ST), etc., but not all of them produce mobile phone Soc chips. The production of mobile phone processor Soc is basically concentrated in TSMC, Samsung, Intel, and GF.

2015+2016 Popular mobile phone processor production/Office:

TSMC: Snapdragon 615/617/652/808/810, MediaTek full series, Apple A9 (16nm), Kirin 950/930, Apple A10 (10nm)

Samsung: Snapdragon 820, Exynos 7420/8890, Apple A9 (14nm)

Intel: Atom full series

Globalfoundries: Ruichuang Micro Series

. How one Soc is born

Instruction set/IP core authorization + core design

us Socs such as Qualcomm Snapdragon XXX, MediaTek MTXXXX, Kirin XXX, etc., which they often come into contact with, do not have their own wafer production lines. By purchasing IP authorization or instruction set authorization from ARM and Imagination (of which Qualcomm, like Snapdragon 820, obtains ARM's instruction set authorization and then develops Kryo cores by itself, while MediaTek/Kylin directly obtains IP core authorization such as A72/A53), and then hand over these Socs to TSMC or Samsung for OEM production.

, while Samsung Exynos is quite special. For example, the latest Exynos 8890 has both independent research and development cores and ARM's public version cores. The authorization fee mainly comes from ARM's instruction set + IP cores, and the cost is naturally lower than MediaTek/Kirin, which are all public version cores. However, Exynos is not like Qualcomm Snapdragon. Samsung has its own wafer production line, so there is no need to find TSMC for OEM production.

Since the kernel solution is available and OEM has found it, it is time to enter the specific production process.

Soc Production of

How a processor (Soc) is born is quite complicated and difficult to express in simple words, but some important steps can still be said: . silicon purification and smelting, making silicon ingots → . silicon ingots cutting, forming a wafer (wafer), infiltrating other elements and oxidizing → . photoresist on ., photoresist is lithographed through mask (mask) → . clears the dissolved photoresist and dissolves the exposed wafer with chemical reagents, then clears the photoresist in the mask area → . Repeat step 3 to form a multi-layer three-dimensional transistor prototype → . injects ion beams, completes doping, and forms P well or N Well → . surface covers the insulating layer, leaving holes that need to be energized, electroplated copper is used to fill the holes (complete transistor manufacturing) → . is connected between transistors with a composite metal layer to form a complex three-dimensional circuit → . functional test → 0. wafer slice, forming a single kernel → 1. kernel package, providing the core with electrical and mechanical interface → 2. performance test, and performing grade classification, defining ID → 3. for sale

Mobile Soc production

Of course, the birth of a Soc is not as simple as the appeal, the author just wants everyone to briefly understand the important steps.

4. The capacity status of wafer foundry in early 2016

TSMC: The 28nm process has been quite mature and has been mass-produced, and 16nm FinFET and FinFET Plus have also completed the production capacity climb one after another. 16nm FinFET Compact (for low-power Soc) will also enter mass production this quarter. The legendary Helio P20 uses this process technology. In terms of 10nm, TSMC will complete the cutting of the drill in the first quarter of this year and enter mass production in the fourth quarter. (But the latest news means that the A10 processor of the iPhone 7 will be fully produced by TSMC's 10nm process production line. I believe it will enter the mass production stage in the second quarter.) 7nm is expected to be mass-produced in the first half of 2018 and the 5nm process has been developed for a while. I wonder what Intel has to think.

TSMC

Samsung: 14nm has been mass-produced, while 10nm is expected to be mass-produced in early 2017, while no news has been made in the 7nm process.

Intel:Intel said in November last year that it had encountered a little difficulty in the 14nm process, but it has now recovered, and the 10nm processor is expected to be launched in the second half of 2017. Anyway, Intel is self-sufficient and does not manufacture OEM for other manufacturers, so we just need to wait for the next generation of Atom processors.

Intel

Globalfoundries:14nm FinFET mass production is believed to have to wait until June this year. In terms of the 10nm/7nm process, Globalfoundries said it will cooperate with IBM, but there is no news of mass production for the time being. But Globalfoundries is good at manufacturing high-performance cores, such as AMD CPUs and GPUs in the PC field, so we can't worry about it like Soc and Intel.

In general, mass production of 14/16nm in 2016 was not a problem. Recently, there were more news that the mid-range Snapdragon 625 also used the 14nm process.

. List of popular processor process technology

The author summarized the process nodes and process distribution of popular mobile phone processors from 2015 to early 2016.

* Among them, 28nm HKMG is also divided into two processes: gate first (front gate, Samsung) and gate last (back gate, TSMC). Their performance is different, so I will not explain it more here.

. Brief analysis of popular Soc technology

8nm: Samsung has HKMG's LP (Low Power), LPP (Low Power Plus) and the strongest LPH. TSMC has Poly/SION's LP (Low Power), HKMG's HPM (High Performance Mobile), and HKMG's HPC+ (High Performance Compact Plus). In the field of mobile phone Soc, the above six strongest performances are Samsung LPH, followed by TSMC's HPM. The positioning of different 28nm processes is: high performance: LPH, HPM, and mainstream: LP, HPC, HPC+.

28nm LP process process MT6753

0nm: is only used by TSMC on this process node (Samsung also has it, but it is used for DDR3 memory manufacturing), and the process is single. The 16/14nm FinFET process is already used in this year's Soc list, while the mainstream Soc that takes into account both performance and power consumption still adopts a 28nm HPM/HPC process with high yield and stable performance (the key is that the A72 core can also suppress power consumption better with 28nm HPM), so the 20nm process will not appear in the mobile Soc field in 2016.

20nm HPM MT6795

6/14nm: Samsung/TSMC FinFET (FF), TSMC FinFET compact (FFC) and FinFET Plus (FF+). FinFET includes two process versions, including the early LPE (Low Power Early) and LPP (Low Power Plus, advanced low power consumption). The positioning of different processes of 16/14nm is: high performance: FF, FF+, mainstream (equipment focusing on power consumption): FFC.

14nm FinFET LPE's Exynos 7420

Summary

2016 is believed to be a year when 28nm+14/16nm coexist. 28nm still becomes the process node of mainstream processors, while flagship processors generally use 16/14nm processes. The processors of the 10nm process node are expected to be unveiled until early 2017 as early as possible. In addition, due to the popularity of micro portable terminals such as smart wearable devices, many processor manufacturers have launched Socs specifically for this type of device. They will use process updates and focus on low-power processes, such as 16nm FinFET Compact.

A good mobile phone processor does not only determine the core architecture, number of cores, main frequency, and the strength of the integrated GPU. Its heating and power consumption are also issues worth considering. After all, no one wants their mobile phone to be a baby warmer or a thing that goes out of power after playing for a long time, and the process technology also determines the core frequency, which affects performance.However, under the same process node and the same process conditions, there are certain differences in Socs produced by different processor manufacturers, because the pollution of raw materials, fluctuations in processing technology, and control of cost/elimination rates will all make the performance of the final products of the same process node/the same process.

So, it’s useless to buy a mobile phone that is so entangled, which one likes to buy.