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China’s top chip maker SMIC may have achieved tech breakthrough, experts say
- Researchers at a Canadian tech analysis firm concluded that Shanghai-based SMIC has been able to produce 7-nanometre chips since last year
- SMIC’s advanced capability would put the company ahead of American and European peers, but it could also spur further US sanctions, analysts say
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China’s top chip maker has likely gained the ability to produce 7-nanometre chips, according to a Canadian tech analysis firm, marking a significant breakthrough as the world’s second-largest economy pushes towards technological self-sufficiency to counter US sanctions.
Researchers at TechInsights made the conclusion after they reverse-engineered a sample chip made by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), extracted from a cryptocurrency mining machine.
Analysts and industry professionals believe it is technically possible for SMIC to produce 7nm chips with existing deep ultraviolet (DUV) systems, under the leadership of co-CEO Liang Mong Song, a chip-making expert who was previously an executive at industry-leading Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
In a widely-circulated resignation letter from Liang in December 2020 that he later withdrew, he wrote that he had led a 2,000-strong engineering team to complete the development of 7nm technology at SMIC. He said the company could start trial production in April 2021.
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SMIC has not made any public comment about the possibility that it has achieved 7nm capability, even though the type of chip that TechInsights analysed has been in production since last July.
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