On September 12, 1958, , Jack Kilby, from Texas Instruments, successfully integrated five components including germanium transistors, and made the world's first germanium integrated circuit .
In July of the following year, the Robert Noyce (Robert Norton Noyce) of Fairchild Semiconductor Company successfully invented the world's first silicon integrated circuit based on the silicon plane process.
Jack Kilby (left), Robert Noyce (right) Jack Kilby (left), Robert Noyce (right)
As you know now, the invention of these two bigwigs has extremely important significance. The emergence of integrated circuits has effectively promoted the miniaturization of electronic device and laid the foundation for the comprehensive arrival of the chip era.
█ DRAMDRAM
After entering the 1960s, with the development of computer technology, the electronics industry began to try to use integrated circuit technology in the field of computer storage.
At that time, semiconductor storage technology was divided into two directions: ROM and RAM. ROM is read-only memory . The stored data will not be lost due to power outage, also known as external memory. The RAM is random access memory , which is used to store operation data. After power outage, the data will be lost, also known as memory .
Today, let’s focus on the field of RAM.
966, Robert H. Dennard, from IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, was the first to invent the DRAM memory (dynamic random access memory).
Robert Denard
This memory is based on the "MOS-type transistor + capacitance structure" and has the characteristics of low energy consumption, fast read and write speed and high integration. Until now, our computer memory, mobile phone memory, graphics card memory, etc. are all based on DRAM technology.
1968, IBM registered the patent for transistor DRAM. However, just as they were preparing to industrialize DRAM, the U.S. Department of Justice launched an antitrust investigation into them.
These investigations delayed IBM's DRAM industrialization progress, thus bringing opportunities to other companies.
Not long after, in 1969, the Advanced Memory System ( Advanced Memory System ) company in California, USA took the lead and successfully produced the world's first DRAM chip (capacity of only 1KB) and sold it to computer manufacturer Honeywell.
After Honeywell received this batch of DRAM chips, he found that there were some problems in the process. So they found a newly established company and asked for help.
This company is Intel (Intel) , co-founded by Robert Noyce (the inventor of silicon integrated circuits mentioned above) and Gordon Moore (the proposer of Moore's law) in 1968.
Robert Neuss (left) and Gordon Moore (right)
After the establishment of Intel , its main business was to develop transistor semiconductor memory chips.
At that time, there were two main research directions for semiconductor technology, namely bipolar transistor and field effect (MOS) transistor . Intel itself didn't know which direction was correct, so it set up two research groups to follow up on two technical directions.
1 In April 969, the bipolar group took the lead in making a breakthrough and launched a 64-bit static random memory (SRAM) chip - C3101. This chip is Intel's first product, and its main customer is Honeywell.
Intel C3101
FET duct team is not willing to fall behind. In July 1969, they launched a 256-bit static random memory chip - C1101. This is the world's first large-capacity SRAM memory .
1 In October 970, the FET team continued to work hard and successfully launched its first DRAM chip (also considered to be the world's first mature commercial DRAM chip) - C1103.
Intel C1103, has 18 pins, a capacity of 1Kbit, and is priced at US$10. After the launch of
C1103, it achieved great success and soon became the world's best-selling semiconductor memory, serving important customers such as HP and DEC.
With the help of C1103, Intel has also grown rapidly. In 1972, Intel's employees exceeded 1,000 and annual income exceeded US$23 million. In 1974, Intel DRAM products had an astonishing 82.9% global market share.
Intel's early team
While Intel is making a fortune in the DRAM field, its competitors are also rising rapidly.
973, American manufacturers such as Texas Instruments and Mostek entered the DRAM market one after another.
Texas Instruments After Intel launched the C1103, it dismantled and copied it, and studied the architecture and process of DRAM through reverse engineering. Later, in 1971 and 1973, they successively launched 2K and 4K DRAM, becoming strong opponents of Intel.
Texas Instruments, Intel's old rival
Mostec was founded by L.J. Sevin, former chief engineer of the Texas Instruments and Semiconductor Center (1969), and its technical strength is also good.
973, they launched the 16-pin DRAM product - MK4096, which also posed a challenge to Intel's market position (other companies have 22-pin, the fewer the pins, the lower the manufacturing cost).
976, Mostek launched MK4116, using POLY-II (double-layer polysilicon gate) process, with a capacity of 16K. This product has achieved great success, reversed the market competition landscape in one fell swoop and increased its DRAM market share to 75%.
MK4116
It’s a pity that not long after, due to malicious acquisitions from the capital market, Mostek’s equity structure changed significantly, management was violently turbulent, and technical personnel were quickly lost, and the company quickly reached a trough.
979, the company was acquired by United Technologies Company (UTC). Later, it was resold to STMicroelectronics .
In October 1978, four Mostec technicians left their jobs and co-founded a new storage technology company in the basement of a dental clinic in Idaho.
This company, which is later the storage giant - Microluminescence (Micron).
Mitsuite's founder team
█ The success and failure of Japanese semiconductor
In addition to domestic competitors, Intel faces greater threats from abroad. More specifically, it comes from - Japan .
1970s, Japan's economy rose rapidly. In order to occupy a good position in the global technology industry chain, they have made careful arrangements in the field of semiconductor technology.
976, Japan established VLSI joint research and development system through the national system (VLSI: THE VERY LARGE SCALE INTEGRATED, ultra-large-scale integration). There are 6 laboratories in the joint R&D body of
, which specializes in research in the fields of high-precision processing technology, silicon crystallization technology, process processing technology, monitoring and evaluation technology, device design technology, etc.
Not long after, this joint R&D body successfully conquered core semiconductor processing equipment such as electron beam lithography machines and dry etching devices, as well as the leading process process and semiconductor design capabilities, laying the foundation for the rise of Japan's semiconductor industry.
977, with the help of the VLSI project, Japan successfully developed 64K DRAM, tying the R&D progress of American companies.
By the 1980s, Japanese manufacturers ( Fujitsu , Hitachi , Mitsubishi , NEC, Toshiba , etc.) continued to make efforts and began to surpass American companies with their quality and price advantages.
1986, the global market share of Japanese memory products rose to 65%, while the United States dropped to 30%.
Under the fierce market competition, Intel Corporation of the United States directly announced that it had given up the DRAM market (1985). The only thing that can survive in the cracks of Japanese manufacturers is Motorola ( Motorola).
Global semiconductor company ranking (1987)
Mantis stalks the cicada, and the oriole is behind. Just as Japanese semiconductor manufacturers were about to unify the world, the external political environment began to undergo subtle changes.
985, the atmosphere of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union continued to weaken, and trade frictions between Japan and the United States continued to increase. Under the pressure of huge fiscal deficits, the Reagan administration in the United States began to turn its attention to suppressing the Japanese economy .
This year, the United States dominated the famous " Square Agreement " , forcing the yen to appreciate. At the same time, the American Semiconductor Association also launched an anti-dumping lawsuit against Japanese semiconductors and other products. Later, the two countries reached a price supervision agreement on Japanese semiconductor products.
Under the repeated blows, the market share of Japanese semiconductor products plummeted and quickly lost their dominance.
█ The rise of Korean semiconductors
So, has the market share given up by Japanese manufacturers been taken away by American manufacturers?
does not.
As the saying goes, "The mantis stalks the cicada, the oriole is behind." While Japanese manufacturers quickly lost power, another American competitor has come out again, that is - South Korea .
When Japan launched the VLSI project, the South Korean government was not idle either. They established the Korean Electronic Technology Institute (KIET) in the Gumi Industrial Zone of Gyeongsang North Province, , and won over US semiconductor talents with high salaries and concentrated on the development of key integrated circuit technologies.
In addition to KIET, Korean Samsung , LG, Hyundai and Daewoo also attracted the market prospects of semiconductor technology, and digested and absorbed it by purchasing and introducing technical patents and processing equipment, and accumulated technical strength.
1984, Samsung Semiconductor built its first memory factory to mass-produce 64K DRAM. No one expected that this unknown Korean company would become a "big master" in the future.
Chapter 1: From the 1980s to the present, the DRAM industry has experienced nearly forty years of development. If you use one word to describe these forty years, it is - "bloody wind" .
The reason is very simple. The biggest feature of the DRAM semiconductor industry is its cyclical laws. Industry insiders once summarized: DRAM semiconductor storage, every year it makes money, it will lose money for two years. The so-called "make one and lose two" .
Under this strong periodic law, it is very difficult to survive for a long time. DRAM manufacturers need to have strong cash flow and financing capabilities, be able to maintain high-intensity R&D expenditures, and maintain the stability of the team.
In the loss cycle, DRAM manufacturers need more money to survive. In a prosperous cycle, you should not be careless. Manufacturers need to be very cautious when choosing the opportunity to expand their production capacity. Otherwise, it may lead to oversupply and profits turning into losses.
In the past forty years, there has been a company that not only persisted in surviving, but also killed countless opponents and occupied a dominant position for a long time. This company is the Samsung mentioned earlier.
Samsung Electronics
Samsung stories, some students may have heard of it. They adopted a "trump card" strategy that has been written into textbooks by countless business schools - counter-cyclical investment in .
Simply put, counter-cyclical investment is to take advantage of the characteristics of the industry's cyclical development. When the industry reaches a trough, when competitors all shrink their scale, it will do the opposite, increase investment, expand production capacity, and further suppress prices, thereby causing competitors to intensify losses and even go bankrupt.
In other words, everyone is burning, but I am even richer. If you burn you to death, I will continue to live.
Samsung, relying on the strength of South Korea, has adopted the "counter-cyclical investment" strategy one after another, killing countless opponents and becoming the leader in the semiconductor storage field.
Next, let’s take a look at what has happened in the past few decades.
- The first "counter-cyclical investment"
Samsung's first "counter-cyclical investment" occurred in the mid-1980s mentioned above.
At that time, Japan and the United States were in full swing, the DRAM market was generally in a recession, and prices fell sharply. The price of DRAM chips dropped from $4 per chip (1984) to $0.3 per chip (1985).
When Samsung built a factory and launched 64K DRAM, the production cost was US$1.3 per piece. Faced with the industry cold winter, Samsung not only did not shrink its investment, but instead began to reverse invest in and expand its production capacity.
By the end of 1986, Samsung Semiconductor had accumulated a loss of US$300 million, and its equity capital was completely deficient, close to bankruptcy.
In a critical period, the South Korean government took action to " rescue the market ", investing a total of nearly US$350 million, and endors in the name of the government, bringing Samsung 2 billion in individual fundraising.
Later, Japanese semiconductors were overturned by the United States, and the industry prosperity brought about by PC computers entering a hot sales period made Samsung turn the tables smoothly and usher in performance growth.
Not long after, Korean DRAM manufacturers represented by Samsung gradually eroded the market share given up by Japanese semiconductor companies and occupied the dominant position in the market.
- The second "counter-cyclical investment"
992, a Japanese Sumitomo resin factory exploded, resulting in a tight supply of raw materials and a skyrocketing memory prices. This year, Samsung took the lead in launching the world's first 64M DRAM.
993, the global semiconductor market began to weaken again. At this time, Samsung re-used the same trick and adopted the second "counter-cyclical investment". They invested in building an 8-inch silicon wafer production line for DRAM production.
995, Microsoft's Windows 95 Windows operating system was released, which greatly stimulated the demand for memory and led to a sharp rise in memory prices. Samsung's investment received returns. Major manufacturers around the world realized that they invested in expanding their production capacity.
Good times did not last long. By the end of 1995, after the 8-inch wafer fabs of each manufacturer were put into production, the production capacity increased sharply, which instead made DRAM more than demand. So, the seller's market became again, and the price began to fall again.
In this case, manufacturers are forced to cut production and reduce investment scale.
Samsung continues to expand its investment. In 1996, Samsung launched the world's first 1GB DRAM, establishing its own industry leadership. From
996 to 1998, DRAM continued to be in a downward cycle.
999, the trend of falling DRAM prices eased. Due to the emergence of Internet bubble , the DRAM industry has entered a brief stage of prosperity.
This year, under the fierce competitive environment, the memory industry has undergone several major changes in :
Korean system, South Korea's Hyundai Memory merged with LG Semiconductor to establish Hyundai Semiconductor. Later, it was split from Hyundai Group (2001) and renamed Hynix (Hynix) .
Asian, Magnesium acquired Texas Instruments memory department.
Japanese, Hitachi, NEC, Mitsubishi Electric DRAM business integration, and formed Erbida (ELPIDA) .
European system, Siemens Group's semiconductor department is independent and established YE Heng Technology . A few years later, in 2002, it was renamed Infineon (Infineon ) . Later, in 2006, Infineon Technology's memory business unit was split and independent, becoming Qimonda (Qimonda) .
Soon after, the Internet bubble burst and the global economic crisis broke out. The PC market has suffered a heavy blow, the market demand for DRAM has also dropped rapidly, and prices have plunged again.
In 2001, the DRAM market size was halved from US$28.8 billion to US$11 billion.
In 2006, Samsung developed the world's first 1GB DRAM with a 50nm process. Hynix developed the world's highest speed of 200MHz 512MB Mobile DRAM at that time.
During that period, the DRAM market gradually formed a top five patterns, namely: Samsung (Korea), SK Hynix (Korea), Chimmoth (Dermany), Magnesium (US) and Erbida (Japan).
- The third "counter-cyclical investment"
But in fact, Vista's sales were poor and did not drive the memory market, resulting in another overcapacity.
What’s even more tragic is that in 2008, the financial crisis broke out, which made the DRAM market worse. Memory prices have fallen all the way, even falling below material costs.
At this critical period, Samsung has used the third killing move of "counter-cyclical investment" to further expand production capacity and intensify industry losses.
In the spring of 2009, the third-ranked German manufacturer Qimengda announced bankruptcy, and European manufacturers officially withdrew from the DRAM market.
Qimengda
In 2011, the supply of DRAM once again exceeded actual demand, and the price plummeted. This time, Erbida failed to survive and declared bankruptcy, marking the complete withdrawal of Japanese manufacturers from the DRAM industry.
Erbida chip
So, the top five become three strong, and only Samsung (Korea), Magnesium (US), and Hynix (Korea) remain in the DRAM field. The combined market share of the three companies exceeds 93%.
█ DRAM technology current status
After 2011, there has been no major changes in the market structure of DRAM memory. However, the user needs and market environment of DRAM have changed a lot.
In addition to traditional PCs, with the rapid development of mobile Internet and the Internet of Things, smartphones, wearable devices, Internet of Things devices (camera, etc.) have risen rapidly, greatly driving the demand for DRAM.
Cloud computing , the development of big data and AI artificial intelligence has promoted the increase in the number of data centers, thus bringing a sharp increase in servers and network equipment, and also stimulating the growth of DRAM sales.
These requirements gradually subdivided DRAM into categories such as standard DRAM, mobile DRAM, drawing DRAM, niche DRAM, etc.
standard DRAM is mainly used in PCs, servers, etc. Mobile DRAM is mainly LPDDR, which is used in smartphones, tablets and other scenarios. Drawing DDR is used for graphics memory (GDDR) of graphics cards. Niche DRAM, mainly used in LCD TV, digital set-top box , network players and other products.
LPDDR
The strong demand for multiple product scenarios has driven the rise in DRAM prices.Around 2018, the demand for digital currency such as Bitcoin broke out, which made the DRAM market usher in a rare "golden period".
After 2019, due to the initial expansion of production capacity and destocking factors, the memory price fell a lot. The collapse of the cryptocurrency market prices and the smartphone market entered a mature stage, which made market demand weak and DRAM entered a trough period again.
According to data released by relevant institutions, starting from the second half of 2020 to May 2022, it is a period of improvement in the DRAM market.
Starting from June this year, the DRAM market plummeted. Sales fell by 36% in June and 21% in July, which can be said to be a full collapse and is terrible. According to institutional forecasts, the decline in the fourth quarter will further expand.
DRAM market plummeted
Next, let’s look at the development of DRAM in recent years from a technical perspective.
DRAM chips have always used miniaturization processes to improve storage density.
DRAM every process update requires a lot of investment.
takes 30nm to 20nm as an example, the number of lithography masks required by the latter has increased by 30%, and the number of non-lithography process steps has doubled. The requirements for the area of clean room factory buildings have also increased by more than 80% with the increase in the number of equipment. Before
, these costs could be compensated by more chip output from a single wafer and the premium brought by performance. However, as the process continues to shrink, the gap between increased costs and revenue gradually narrows.
Around 2013, when the process technology entered 20nm, the manufacturing difficulty increased significantly. After 18/16nm, the size reduction in the two-dimensional direction is continued, and the cost and performance advantages are no longer available.
So, DRAM chip manufacturers began to take a different approach and began to study the expansion capabilities of the Z direction. That is to say, we will start to advance 3D packaging.
As the industry leader, Samsung took the lead in realizing 3D DRAM from the packaging perspective. They use TSV packaging technology to stack multiple DRAM chips, thereby greatly improving the capacity and performance of a single memory stick. Later, various manufacturers followed suit, and 3D DRAM became the mainstream.
In terms of product standards, the industry generally adopts product standards formulated by the Solid State Technology Association (JEDEC), which is the familiar DDR1-DDR5.
Image source: Global Semiconductor Observation
DRAM three giants have the mass production capabilities of DDR5/LPDDR5. Samsung is fiddling with the DDR6, and it is said that the design will be completed in 2024.
In terms of chip process, the current expression of DRAM is different from before. In the past, it was just called 40nm and 20nm. Now, because the circuit structure is three-dimensional, linear measurement methods are no longer applicable, and term expression processes such as 1X, 1Y, 1Z, 1α, 1β, 1γ have emerged.
The industry believes that the 10nm~20nm series process includes at least six generations, 1X is approximately equivalent to 19nm, 1Y is approximately equivalent to 18nm, 1Z is approximately 16-17nm, and 1α, 1β, and 1γ correspond to 12-14nm (below 15nm).
Image source: Global Semiconductor Observation
Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron have entered the 1Xnm stage between 2016 and 2017, entered the 1Ynm stage from 2018 to 2019, and entered the 1Znm stage after 2020.
At present, major manufacturers continue to approach 10nm. The latest 1αnm is still in the 10+nm stage.
█ The past and present of China's DRAM industry
Finally, let's take a look at the development of the domestic DRAM industry.
China is one of the important markets of global semiconductor memory and is also a "must-fight place" for global semiconductor memory manufacturers.
However, to be honest, in the development of our own DRAM industry, is far behind its competitor .
The start of the domestic DRAM industry can be traced back to the 1990s.
At that time, Japan's NEC established two joint ventures in mainland China to engage in the production of DRAM.
is the first company, which was established by NEC and Shougang in 1991.
Shougang NEC has been producing 4M DRAM (later upgraded to 16M) since 1995. Later, DRAM fell sharply in 1997, and Shougang NEC suffered a heavy blow and never recovered. Later, Shougang NEC became an OEM base for NEC overseas and withdrew from the DRAM industry.
second company is Huahong NEC, a joint venture between NEC and Huahong Group in 1997.
Huahong NEC started in September 1999 and used 8-inch 0.35 micron process technology to produce the mainstream 64M DRAM memory chip at that time. After 2001, as NEC withdrew from the DRAM market, Huahong also withdrew from the DRAM industry.
In 2004, China began its second attempt in the DRAM industry. The one who took action this time was SMIC .
At that time, SMIC invested in the construction of the first 12-inch wafer factory (Fab4) in mainland China in Beijing. In 2006, it mass-produced the 80nm process on a large scale, and produced DRAM for Qimengda and Erbida.
Good times did not last long. In 2008, due to the adjustment of SMIC's business, it withdrew from the DRAM business. The second attempt was declared a failure.
In 2015, China's DRAM purchase amount was approximately US$12 billion, accounting for 21.6% of the global DRAM supply. The current situation of severe reliance on imports has prompted the third attempt to target DRAM business in China.
The most representative of this attempt is the three major memory bases of Wuhan, Hefei and Xiamen . With the help of industrial policies at the national and local levels, these bases have invested a lot of capital (more than 250 billion yuan) to develop semiconductor storage technology and cultivate talents.
At present, the more representative companies in the DRAM field in China are Hefei Changxin, Fujian Jinhua, Unigroup Guoxin , Zhaoyi Innovation, Beijing Sicheng, Dongxin Semiconductor, South Asia Technology (Taiwan, China), Huabang Electronics (Taiwan, China), Liji Electric (Taiwan, China), etc.
Hefei Changxin is a leading company in DRAM memory chips in China. Their DRAM technology mainly comes from the bankrupt German DRAM manufacturer Chimunda and the Japanese manufacturer Erbida.
On September 20, 2019, Hefei Changxin announced that the first 12-inch DRAM factory in mainland China was put into production and released the first 8G DDR4 manufactured by 19nm process, which is a historic breakthrough.
According to the agency's estimate, Hefei Changxin's production capacity is expected to reach 125,000 pieces from 2022 to 2023.
Fujian Jinhua , everyone should hear about it. A few years ago, they were sanctioned by the US government and the news was very big.
In May 2016, Fujian Jinhua cooperated with UMC to produce niche DRAM. In December 2017, Magnesium accused Fujian Jinhua and UMC of stealing their own memory chip technology. In January 2018, Fujian Jinhua also filed a lawsuit against Meiguang for patent infringement. In October 2018, Fujian Jinhua was included in the list of export control entities. In November 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice sued UMC and Fujian Jinhua for stealing Magnesium trade secrets.
After some trouble, UMC could not bear it anymore. At the end of January 2019, UMC announced the withdrawal of the Jinhua DRAM project in Fujian. In November 2021, UMC and Magnesium reached a settlement. At present, there is no complete final result for the review of Fujian Jinhua.
█ Conclusion
OK, I have written so much, and what I see here is true love.
In short, DRAM memory is an important part of products such as computers and mobile phones, and is also an indispensable "part" for digital infrastructure.
At present, domestic DRAM memory has basically solved the problem of whether there is or not. The next step is to solve the problem of improving yield rates and the problem of climbing production capacity. In terms of financing capabilities, industrial chain supporting facilities and talent echelons, we still need to continue to strengthen and move forward cautiously.
Looking forward to us to break the "three top" pattern as soon as possible and occupy a more important position in the DRAM field.
Thank you for your patience to watch! Next issue, Xiao Zaojun will talk to you about the development history of FLASH storage, so stay tuned!
Reference:
. "Who will solve this DRAM technology dilemma? 》, Wang Kaiqi, Global Semiconductor Observation;
. "Technology Brochure 035-Semiconductor Storage Flash Memory", Wu Mijin, Zhihu;
10, Baidu Encyclopedia, Wikipedia related entries.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-