Everyone knows that the most core equipment for manufacturing chips is lithography machine , especially chips with processes of 7nm and below. It has very high requirements for the accuracy of lithography machines. Currently, only EUV lithography machines produced by ASML meet the above requirements. It is precisely because of this that chip foundry giants including TSMC, , Samsung , , Intel and other Intel have all extended olive branches to ASML, hoping to strengthen cooperation with it to obtain more EUV lithography machines.
But as Moore's law approaches the physical limit, the advanced technology dominated by EUV lithography machines seems to have come to an end. In other words, if you blindly pursue high performance and low power consumption, the result will only be a surge in costs. TSMC's abandonment of the N3 process and switching to the N3E process is the best proof.
So the question is, is there any way to bypass EUV lithography machines and also make high-performance chips? There are many answers, such as core particle technology, photonic chip technology, and chip stacking technology. Especially chip stacking technology, the M1 Ultra chip launched by Apple uses chip stacking technology to stack two M1 Max chips together to create a high-performance SOC chip .
In addition to Apple, in order to solve the high-performance problem, Huawei has also made plans in chip superposition technology and has released a number of chip superposition patents, which can even make the 14nm chip achieve the performance of a 7nm chip.
Unexpectedly, on October 27, TSMC officially announced that it would establish an open and innovative platform - the 3D Fabric Alliance. The purpose is also very simple, that is, to promote the development of 3D semiconductors.
According to the information disclosed by TSMC, 19 partners have agreed to join the 3D Fabric alliance, including chip giants such as Micron , Samsung Memory, and SK Hynix .
TSMC also stated that the 3D Fabric alliance formed this time will help customers quickly realize chip and system-level implementation. This also means that TSMC is very optimistic about the development prospects of 3D packaging technology.
In terms of core particle technology, my country's packaging and testing giant Tongfu Microelectronics has also broken through the 5nm process. The key is that the US chip giant Chaowei also issued a five-year contract for it. In other words, Chaowei will rely on core-grain technology to produce high-performance chips in the next five years.
In this regard, the outside world unanimously believes that large American companies rely on Chinese chip technology is the price of the West's "decoupling", and it also proves that China's chip technology is rising rapidly.
At the same time, my country's first "multi-size, cross-material" photonic chip production line is also ready to start construction and is expected to be completed in Beijing by 2023. It is reported that photonic chips are better than electronic chips in terms of computing speed and chip performance.
All signs indicate that the EUV lithography machine produced by ASML is no longer the only option to manufacture high-end chips, and TSMC has established a 3D alliance to showdown with ASML. It has been working hard to reduce its dependence on ASML lithography machine technology.
You should know that ASML's main source of revenue is EUV lithography machines and DUV lithography machines. Now EUV lithography machines cannot be shipped to China normally. In addition, the world's advanced chip production capacity is overcapacity, and even TSMC plans to shut down some EUV lithography machines. Obviously, none of these are what ASML wants to see.
Although ASML has been trying to find ways to get free shipping, in fact, the limits of Moore's Law no longer allow ASML to do so. As for how ASML will deal with it, let's wait and see. What do you think about this? Everyone is welcome to leave a message, like and share.
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