Opinionated - China Chipping Away to Semiconductor Dominance

[JSCh]

CAS shatters super-res record with latest lithography equipment
Source:Globaltimes.cn Published: 2018/11/30 2:34:10

A researcher shows a device produced with the lithography equipment on November 29. Photo: VCG

Researchers with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Southwestern China's Sichuan Province announced their latest breakthrough after setting a new world-record in lithography resolution nanotechnology on November 29, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Vice-Director Hu Song said the breakthrough shatters traditional research methods by creating new pathways in nanometer optical lithography technology, and China now owns the complete intellectual property rights.

Researchers developed lithography equipment that can produce 10-nanometer chips with double exposure technology.

The tests achieved a world record-setting resolution at 22 nanometers developed by researchers with the Institute of Optics and Electronics at CAS.

Scientists at the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry said the project establishes a new research direction in the development of high-resolution and large-scale nanometer lithography equipment, surpassing intellectual property barriers set by foreign countries.

Lithography equipment is essential for chip manufacturing, a sector China is now beginning to emerge.

Higher lithography resolution allows increased chip integration levels; while it is hard to increase resolution through traditional lithography technology due to the optical diffraction effect.

Reports said the super-resolution optical lithography equipment has already proven effective in projects at universities and institutions like Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, West China Hospital and Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology.

 

[cirr]

I guess the PLA is extremely pleased with this news.

New machine raises country's image in photolithography

2018-11-30 08:43:08 China Daily Editor : Li Yan

"Make it small" has been the mantra that drives big developments in microelectronics, from transistors to processors. So much so that high-tech companies' competitiveness rests on the ability to reliably create components on the scale of nanometers, or one-billionth of a meter.

At the heart of microengineering lies photolithography, one of the key techniques used to create the circuitry patterns on semiconductor chips. This allows engineers to pack and replicate complicated circuits with millions of components into a very tiny space using light.

This technique is so advanced that only a handful of companies from Europe and Japan can produce the machine capable of such a feat. But recently, China entered the game.

The Institute of Optics and Electronics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced on Thursday that it has developed its own photolithography machine, thus overcoming one of the major engineering obstacles limiting China's development in chips, nanocomponents and optical instruments.

The new machine, which scientists began building in 2012, can etch circuitry patterns less than 22 nanometers using ultraviolet light. Combined with other techniques, it can be used in the future to create chips of around 10 nanometers.

"The machine is of great value in manufacturing general chips and other materials that require microengineering, including some integrated circuits," said Hu Song, deputy chief designer of the project.

The machine can also be used to make small components for applications such as sensors, detectors and biochips, Hu said.

It is already being used by several institutions including Sichuan University and the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.

However, the new machine's production capability is still small, hence it is still limited to producing key components for research, Hu said.

In the coming years, the teamwill focus its efforts on increasing the machine's productivity to industrial scale. There are still substantial gaps in the microengineering sector between China and developed countries, but China is catching up fast, Hu said.

Companies capable of photolithography will have an overwhelming edge in producing microelectronics, he said. Chip manufacturing giant Intel claimed it could produce more than 5 billion nanoscale transistors every second, according to its company's fact sheet.

The world's largest photolithography supplier is a Dutch company called ASML Holding. Some of ASML's main competitors are Canon and Nikon.

Since the late 1990s, China has been blocked from importing cutting-edge photolithography technologies and other chip manufacturing equipment from developed countries.

This situation is aggravated because ASML owns substantial patents covering imprint lithography, which includes photolithography, Hu said.

As a result, Chinese companies have to rely on relatively outdated and inefficient techniques to produce microelectronics, thus their product is often inferior to that of developed countries.

To overcome the monopoly, the Institute of Optics and Electronics discovered a new physics phenomenon in 2003 and used the property as the basis for the new machine.

China now has 47 domestic and four international patents regarding the new technology, Hu said.

"We no longer fear a foreign technical blockade because we have full intellectual ownership of the new technique."

国产22nm光刻机通过验收 应用于特殊行业

铁流

微信公众号 tieliu19882小时前

日前，国家重大科研装备研制项目“超分辨光刻装备研制”29日通过验收，这是我国成功研制出的世界首台分辨力最高紫外超分辨光刻装备。该光刻机由中国科学院光电技术研究所研制，光刻分辨力达到22纳米，结合多重曝光技术后，可用于制造制程小于10纳米的芯片。

中科院理化技术研究所许祖彦院士等验收组专家一致表示，该光刻机在365纳米光源波长下，单次曝光最高线宽分辨力达到22纳米。项目在原理上突破分辨力衍射极限，建立了一条高分辨、大面积的纳米光刻装备研发新路线，绕过了国外相关知识产权壁垒。



一直以来，光刻机是中国半导体设备的重大短板，国内单位目前能够商业量产的还是90nm光刻机，和ASML的差距非常大。国内晶圆厂所需的光刻机基本依赖进口，不仅价格异常昂贵，还必须排队等待漫长的交货期。另外，即便ASML愿意交货，还需要防备来自某大国的政治压力和政治风险。



可以说，如果能够实现光刻机的自给自足，绝对是一个振奋人心的消息。

而且就技术路线来说，中国科学院光电技术研究所的技术和国际传统技术有一定差异。

光源是光刻机的核心部件之一。在光刻机改进中，所使用的光源也不断改进发展：

第一代是436nm g-line。

第二代是365nm i-line。

第三代是248nm KrF。

第四代是193nm ArF。

最新的是13.5nm EUV。



目前，在集成电路产业使用的中高端光刻机采用的是193nmArF光源和13.5nmEUV光源。

而本次中国科学院光电技术研究所并没有采用193nmArF光源和13.5nmEUV光源，而是采用了比较传统的汞灯做光源，实现了22纳米的光刻分辨力，走出了一条自己的路，这绝对是一个了不起的技术突破。

正是因此，项目副总师胡松表示，中科院光电所此次通过验收的表面等离子体超分辨光刻装备，打破了传统路线格局，形成了一条全新的纳米光学光刻技术路线，具有完全自主知识产权，为超材料/超表面、第三代光学器件、广义芯片等变革性领域的跨越式发展提供了制造工具。

其实，本次的技术并非是凭空冒出来的，而是多年的潜心研发和技术积累。

早在多年前，相关资料披露：

项目完成单位在国家自然科学基金《表面等离子体光学光刻原理和方法研究》、国家863计划《基于Super Lens的纳米光刻技术》等项目的资助下，开展了“表面等离子体超衍射光学光刻基础研究”，原创性提出将表面等离子体引入到光学光刻领域，建立了一条利用长波长光刻光源（i线、g线等）实现超越衍射极限光刻分辨力的崭新光学光刻研究技术路线；发明了表面等离子体超衍射干涉、表面等离子体能量局域结构、表面等离子体缩小倍率超分辨成像等光刻技术，并给出了1/10波长和接近1/20波长的光刻分辨力结果（传统光学理论衍射极限为1/4波长）；国内外搭建了首台SP光刻实验样机和建立了高陡直、高深宽比的配套光刻工艺，在i线365nm波长的汞灯光源下，实验获得50nm的光刻分辨力。

该研究成果改变了国际半导体技术蓝图（ITRS）中光学光刻分辨力受光源波长限制的传统路线格局，突破了传统光学光刻方法无法逾越32nm及以下光刻技术节点的原理和技术困境，为实现32nm、22nm甚至10nm以下光刻技术节点提供了全新的理论和技术手段，为光学光刻技术跨越式发展奠定了坚实基础。

而本次“超分辨光刻装备研制”通过验收，则是中国科学院光电技术研究所多年的技术积累结晶。

不过，就此鼓吹中国打破ASML在高端光刻机上的垄断未免为时过早。

因为，Sp光刻也有其短板，据业内人士介绍，那就是由于基本原理所限，能够加工的晶元尺寸太小，如果需要保证质量就只能加工1-4寸的晶圆。

然而，现在的晶圆厂很多直接12寸晶圆起步，即便是6寸、8寸晶圆，也往往针对一些特定工艺，中国科学院光电技术研究所的光刻机无法满足晶圆厂的需求。

也许有人会说，那就建4寸晶圆的生产线啊。

然而，业内专家表示，与之配套的设备都没跟上。

也许大家会觉得，那就等配套设备跟上呗。

诚然，这样做也并非不可，但采用这款国产光刻机，就意味着只能加工1-4寸的晶元，弄出来的芯片成本远高于现在市面上12寸晶元做出来的，采用国产光刻机做出来的芯片很难在商业上具有竞争力。



想必大家都听出来了，这款光刻机的真正用途，那就是特殊和专用领域。

这一点和公开消息非常吻合。

媒体报道，该光刻机制造的相关器件已在中国航天科技集团公司第八研究院、电子科技大学太赫兹科学技术研究中心、四川大学华西医院、中科院微系统所信息功能材料国家重点实验室等多家科研院所和高校的重大研究任务中取得应用。

明眼人一看就明白，这玩意儿做出来的元器件用在哪儿了。

 

[cirr]

Further details

刚刚研制成功的世界首台分辨力最高紫外超分辨光刻装备意味着什么？

军报记者成都11月29日电（吕珍慧、记者邹维荣）国家重大科研装备研制项目“超分辨光刻装备研制”29日通过验收，这是我国成功研制出的世界首台分辨力最高紫…


yswyx
雄关漫道真如铁(Director, Institute of Microelectronics, CAS)

这个新闻出来以后，舆论出现了两个极端，一堆人说很牛，一堆人说吹牛。说很牛的外行居多，说吹牛的业内人士居多（但不是最专业的）。实际上这两种说法都对，又都不对。我来具体分析一下。

说很牛的，的确是世界级的工作，这一点毋庸置疑。超分辨力光刻技术有很多种，等离子激元只是其中一种，技术的提出已经有十几年了，其它的还有泰伯光学，全息，双光子，光子能量叠加等技术，而且已经有了商业化设备。针对等离子激元，真正做成一个成型的设备，这是我第一次见到。这是非常了不起的。而且，做到波长十分之一以下的分辨力，并且是大面积的实现，也是其它技术很难实现的。这是国内光刻领域非常重要的技术突破，而且是在很艰苦的条件做出的，很不容易。

说吹牛的，很多国内产业届的人士，限于对最新技术的了解，认为365nm无法获得超分辨力结构，甚至有人拿新闻中的照片说没戴口罩来说事儿，是很不负责任的。要说吹牛，实际要指出的是这个技术自身的局限性。以目前的技术能力，只能做周期的线条和点阵，是无法制作复杂的IC需要的图形的。更进一步，以光电所目前的实力，IC制造需要的超高精度对准技术，也是无法实现的。因此这项技术在短期内是无法应用于IC制造领域的，是无法撼动ASML在IC制造领域分毫的。它所面向的应用领域，是光学器件，比如高精密光栅，光子晶体阵列等等，虽然狭小，但需求仍然非常高端和强烈。从这一点上说，新闻报道的某些方面是有吹牛的成分的，但以目前的形势，可以理解。只是那些所谓的专业人士没黑到点子上。

综合来看，这项技术在很关键的领域实现了突破，至少获得了和欧美技术交换的基础，这是非常重要的事情。虽然短期无法实现在IC领域的应用，但形成了一定的威胁，长期还是有可能取得更重要的突破的。而这项技术最可贵的是，可以在光学器件制造领域迅速的得到应用，具有现实的商业化意义，和巨大xx价值。

在这里，请记住几个人的名字，杜春雷，罗先刚，胡松，叶甜春。没有他们的引领，创造，坚持和支撑，就没有取得成果的今天。还有那些在为中国半导体事业奋斗在一线的人们，致敬！

有个细节请各位注意，这篇文章是军报记者报道的，信息量很大。

 

[qwerrty]

digitimes.com
GIS, O-film to share in-display fingerprint sensor orders for Galaxy S10, say sources
Siu Han, Taipei; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES
2-3 minutes

Wednesday 28 November 2018

Taiwan-based General Interface Solution (GIS) and China's O-film Tech are likely to share the orders for ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensors from Samsung Electronics for its flagship Galaxy S10 lineup slated for launch in early 2019, according to industry sources.

With Samsung expected to unveil its Galaxy S10 family products at the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC) at the end of February 2019, the supply chain the flagship models are expected to begin to fulfill related orders in January, said the sources.

The Galaxy S10 lineup is expected to come out with two OLED variants in sizes of 6.1- and 6.4-inch, according to an industry estimate.

While GIS and O-film both have tied up with Qualcomm for developing ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor technology, GIS has an advantage of having a high yield rate in production and O-film is strong for its high production capacity at lower production cost, indicated the sources.

GIS and O-film will roll out efforts to win more orders from Samsung if the Korea-based vendor decides to extend the use of the ultrasonic in-display fingerprint technology to its Galaxy Note lineup, commented the sources.

In addition to vying for orders from Samsung, O-film is also competing with GIS as well as TPK Holding for touch module orders from Apple for its iPad lineup, revealed the sources.

O-film, which managed to cut into the iPad supply chain in 2017 with the supply of touch sensors for iPad mini, has also begun shipping touch modules for 9.7-inch iPad products in 2018, threatening the primary supplier status being enjoyed by GIS and TPK.

For all of 2018, GIS is expected to snap up 50% of the entire touch module orders for Apple's iPad lineups, including 9.7- and 12.9-inch iPad and 10.5-inch iPad Pro. TPK and O-film will share the remaining 50%, the sources estimated.

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

biometricupdate.com
Horizon Robotics raises up to $1 billion to address facial biometric and autonomous vehicle markets
Nov 27, 2018 | Chris Burt
2-3 minutes

Horizon Robotics has raised up to $1 billion in a Series B funding round which values the company at between $3 billion and $4 billion, the Financial Times reports. The funding round for the Intel-backed company includes investment from an international chip company, Senior Business Development Manager Stone Li said.

Previous investors in Horizon include Hill House Capital, Sequoia Capital, Yuri Milner and Sinovation Ventures.

The company is benefiting from China’s push to reduce its reliance on imported semiconductors, which the Financial Times reports it spends more on than oil. The state-owned SMIC is still producing chips multiple generations behind those of Taiwan’s TSMC or Intel.

Horizon says that one of its chips runs facial recognition algorithms for on-camera matching from databases storing up to 50,000 faces at the edge. In another project, the company is developing self-driving cars in the Eastern Chinese city of Wuxi in partnership with Audi.

“You can debate how many cars will be self-driving by when,” Mark Li, semiconductor analyst at Bernstein Research, told the Financial Post. “In my view it will be a while, but along the way you will have more and more self-driving functions in the cars — and in addition some chips could be used elsewhere, like facial recognition surveillance.”

The investment climate for Chinese AI may be cooling, but some companies in the industry continue to raise billions, according to the report.

UBS estimates that the market for shifting AI from the cloud to devices will generate $15 billion by 2021.

Horizon launched a new line of cameras with embedded facial recognition technology earlier this year.



for civilian:

guide infrared
north guangwei (gwic)
magnity
dali-tech

.

Then why is it that DJI has partnered with Flir for their thermal imaging solutions?

Also, do these companies offer comparable products to Flir?

China's Indigenous Ultraviolet Ultra High Resolution Lithography (capable of 22nm-10nm processes)

我国成功研制出世界首台分辨力最高紫外超分辨光刻装备

邹维荣、吕珍慧 装备科技 今天

Pls click on the link below if the images fail to show.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/n0Izw3cIwspvXXGEa9HtGA

我国成功研制出世界首台分辨力最高紫外超分辨光刻装备

可加工22纳米芯片

▲超分辨光刻装备核心部件纳米定位干涉仪以及精密间隙测量系统。

军报记者成都11月29日电（吕珍慧、记者邹维荣）国家重大科研装备研制项目“超分辨光刻装备研制”29日通过验收，这是我国成功研制出的世界首台分辨力最高紫外超分辨光刻装备。该光刻机由中国科学院光电技术研究所研制，光刻分辨力达到22纳米，结合多重曝光技术后，可用于制造10纳米级别的芯片。

▲超分辨光刻设备核心部件超分辨光刻镜头。

中科院理化技术研究所许祖彦院士等验收组专家一致表示，该光刻机在365纳米光源波长下，单次曝光最高线宽分辨力达到22纳米。项目在原理上突破分辨力衍射极限，建立了一条高分辨、大面积的纳米光刻装备研发新路线，绕过了国外相关知识产权壁垒。

▲超分辨光刻设备加工的4英寸光刻样品。

▲采用超分辨光刻设备加工的超导纳米线单光子探测器。

光刻机是制造芯片的核心装备，我国在这一领域长期落后。它采用类似照片冲印的技术，把一张巨大的电路设计图缩印到小小的芯片上，光刻精度越高，芯片体积可以越小，性能也可以越高。但由于光波的衍射效应，光刻精度终将面临极限。

▲中科院光电所科研人员展示利用超分辨光刻设备加工的超导纳米线单光子探测器。

为突破极限、取得更高的精度，国际上目前采用缩短光波、增加成像系统数值孔径等技术路径来改进光刻机，但也遇到装备成本高、效率低等阻碍。

项目副总师胡松介绍，中科院光电所此次通过验收的表面等离子体超分辨光刻装备，打破了传统路线格局，形成了一条全新的纳米光学光刻技术路线，具有完全自主知识产权，为超材料/超表面、第三代光学器件、广义芯片等变革性领域的跨越式发展提供了制造工具。

▲项目副总设计师胡松研究员介绍超分辨光刻装备研制项目攻关情况。

▲中科院光电所科研人员操作超分辨光刻设备。

据了解，该光刻机制造的相关器件已在中国航天科技集团公司第八研究院、电子科技大学太赫兹科学技术研究中心、四川大学华西医院、中科院微系统所信息功能材料国家重点实验室等多家科研院所和高校的重大研究任务中取得应用。

▲中科院光电所科研人员操作超分辨光刻设备。

@Bussard Ramjet India?

It is not India that is claiming to challenge US. Also, it is not India that has adversarial relations with US.


I have seen such claims from you and Chinese sources multiple times before. According to your old comments, SMIC should have started 14/16nm FinFET production years back!

Similarly, you earlier claimed that AMEC made good equipment, but when I saw its actual market share, it was less than 1%.

We will have to wait and see what this machine does in market to find out its real capability. Other than that I think even the advertised capability is many generations behind the leading edge.

 

[qwerrty]

Then why is it that DJI has partnered with Flir for their thermal imaging solutions?

it's chinese mentality thing 'western shit is better than their own' like that quanergy lidar startup that many chinese jumpin on each others to invest in.
quanergy is developing solid state lidar with specs similar to those made by hesia and robosense that already have big market share in asia and proven technology. yet, many chinese investors are overlooking them. lol
according to news, quanergy over-hyped solid state lidar doesn't even work properly. they keep getting more & more money thrown at them like magic leap with crappy product and their employees are quitting the company in droves. money down the drain..

Also, do these companies offer comparable products to Flir?

check their website..

uncooled infrared focal plane micro-polarization array detector from gwic
www.nvir.cn/art/2018/9/22/art_638_131422.html
http://www.gwic.com.cn/en_index.html
http://www.guideinfrared.com/
http://www.dali-tech.us/
http://www.magnity.com.cn/english/index.html
http://www.ghopto.com/index.php?p=indexeng

 

[JSCh]

PUBLIC RELEASE: 4-DEC-2018
Discovery of single material that produces white light could boost efficiency of LED bulbs
Physicists at The University of Toledo are part of an international team of scientists who discovered a single material that produces white light, opening the door for a new frontier in lighting, which accounts for one-fifth of global energy consumption.

UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO

​

Dr. Xiaoming Wang (left) and Dr. Yanfa Yan from The University of Toledo are part of an international team that discovered a single material that produces white light. CREDIT: Dan Miller, The University of Toledo

Physicists at The University of Toledo are part of an international team of scientists who discovered a single material that produces white light, opening the door for a new frontier in lighting, which accounts for one-fifth of global energy consumption.

"Due to its high efficiency, this new material can potentially replace the current phosphors used in LED lights - eliminating the blue-tinged hue - and save energy," said Dr. Yanfa Yan, professor of physics at UT. "More research needs to be done before it can be applied to consumer products, but the ability to reduce the power that bulbs consume and improve the color quality of light that the bulbs emit is a positive step to making the future more environmentally friendly."

The renewable energy research was recently published in Nature, the world's leading multidisciplinary science journal.

The equation to make the inorganic compound combines a lead-free double perovskite with sodium.

"Together, cesium, silver, indium and chloride emit white light, but the efficiency is very low and not usable," Yan said. "When you incorporate sodium, the efficiency increases dramatically. However, when sodium concentration reaches beyond 40 percent, side effects occur and the white light emission efficiency starts to drop below the peak of 86 percent."

Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Frontier Research Center in Colorado known as CHOISE, Yan and Dr. Xiaoming Wang, UT post-doctoral researcher, conducted the theoretical calculations that revealed why the new material created through experiments by a team led by Dr. Jiang Tang at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China produces high-efficiency white light.

"It was a wonderful experience working with Dr. Wang and Dr. Yan. Their professional theoretical simulation helps to reveal the emission mechanism of this miracle material," said Tang, professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology's Wuhan National Laboratory. "This lead-free all-inorganic perovskite not only emits stable and efficient warm-white light that finds itself useful for solid-state lighting, but also shows as an encouraging example that lead-free perovskites could even show better performance than their lead cousins."

"Their work is truly impressive," Dr. Sanjay Khare, professor and chair of the UT Department of Physics and Astronomy, said. "Emission of white light from a single material is likely to open a whole new field in opto-electronics."



Discovery of single material that produces white light could boost efficiency of LED bulbs | EurekAlert! Science News

Jiajun Luo, Xiaoming Wang, Shunran Li, Jing Liu, Yueming Guo, Guangda Niu, Li Yao, Yuhao Fu, Liang Gao, Qingshun Dong, Chunyi Zhao, Meiying Leng, Fusheng Ma, Wenxi Liang, Liduo Wang, Shengye Jin, Junbo Han, Lijun Zhang, Joanne Etheridge, Jianbo Wang, Yanfa Yan, Edward H. Sargent, Jiang Tang. Efficient and stable emission of warm-white light from lead-free halide double perovskites. Nature (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0691-0​

 

[JSCh]

Ultrahigh-Voltage Integrated Micro-Supercapacitors with Designable Shapes and Superior Flexibility Developed
Dec 10, 2018

The unprecedented boom of portable and wearable electronics has stimulated the demand for microscale energy storage devices with various properties, especially flexibility, tailored performance according to actual situations and seamless integration with existing electronics industry systems.

Planar micro-supercapacitors (MSCs), consisting of two adjacent electrodes separated by a separator-free interspace on a single substrate, could substantially simplify integration process and avoid possibility of multilayer delamination under bending states in comparison with conventional stacked geometry. However, cost-effective and scalable fabrication of integrated MSCs is still unsolved.

A research group led by WU Zhongshuai and BAO Xinhe from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with researchers from the Institute of Metal Research, CAS, developed rapid and scalable fabrication of ultrahigh-voltage integrated micro-supercapacitors (IMSCs) with designable shapes and superior flexibility.

Schematic of screen-printing fabrication of IMSCs; Photographs of IMSCs with various geometries and diverse integration; Photograph of letter-shaped IMSCs powering 3 liquid crystal displays. (Image by SHI Xiaoyu and HOU Xiaocheng)

Through elaborated selection and optimization of active material, conducting additive and polymer binder, the scientists prepared highly stable and conducting graphene-based ink with outstanding rheological, electrical and electrochemical properties.

With assistance of a universal, cost-effective, industrially applicable screen-printing strategy, they demonstrated fast and scalable fabrication of graphene-based planar IMSCs, with shape diversity, aesthetic versatility, and outstanding flexibility.

More importantly, by using the highly conductive ink as current collectors, microelectrodes and interconnects simultaneously, they directly screen-printed IMSCs consisting of hundreds of individual MSCs on arbitrary substrates in several seconds.

The resulting IMSCs are free of metal current collectors and interconnects as well as separators, and exhibit exceptional electrical double-layer capacitive behaviors and remarkable flexibility.

Notably, the output voltage and capacitance of IMSCs are readily adjustable through connection in well-defined arrangements of MSCs. As a proof of concept, a tandem energy storage pack of IMSCs with 130 MSCs can output a recorded voltage exceeding 100 V, demonstrative of superior modularization and performance uniformity.

This work exhibits great potential for scalable fabrication and integration of other planar energy storage devices, such as hybrid capacitors and batteries.

The work published in Energy & Environmental Science was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key R&D Program of China, the Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province.



Ultrahigh-Voltage Integrated Micro-Supercapacitors with Designable Shapes and Superior Flexibility Developed---Chinese Academy of Sciences

 

[TaiShang]

Dec 17, 2018 06:55 PM

Alibaba Sets Up Chipmaker

By Jason Tan

E-commerce titan Alibaba has registered its first chip-making company, as China looks to break the nation’s dependence on foreign semiconductor technology. Photo: VCG

E-commerce titan Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has officially registered its first chip-making unit with 10 million yuan ($1.4 million) of capital in Shanghai.

The move, which was first announced in September, reflects a broader desire in China to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign technology, especially the semiconductors and memory chips that are used in gadgets such as laptops, smartphones, tablets and smart watches.

https://www.caixinglobal.com/2018-12-17/alibaba-sets-up-chipmaker-101360172.html

 

[qwerrty]

TSMC's 5nm chip plant will use AMEC's 5nm plasma etching tools

在台积电的5nm生产线中，将有来自深圳中微半导体的5nm等离子体蚀刻机，自主研发，近日已经通过了台积电的验证，将用于全球首条5nm工艺生产线。
https://www.eet-china.com/news/201812191030.html

These Companies were rated for their Etch & Clean equipment

The companies below all received ratings for their Etch & Clean Equipment in the 2018 VLSIresearch Customer Satisfaction Survey with Plasma-Therm, AMEC, and SPTS coming out on top. Respondents commented on their expertise in their field, great customer support, and excellent product quality.

https://www.vlsiresearch.com/public/cms_pdf_upload/css_press_181206/css_press_181206.htm

2018 Top Deposition Equipment Suppliers

AMEC is recognized as 2018 Top Deposition Equipment Supplier in VLSIresearch Customer Satisfaction Survey. Plasma-Therm and Hitachi Kokusai Electric also coming out on top. Respondents across the board recognize these suppliers for their excellent uptime, usable performance, and overall value.

https://www.vlsiresearch.com/public/cms_pdf_upload/css_press_181121/CSS_VLSIreleases_181121.htm

10 BEST SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT SUPPLIER RANKINGS FOR 2018

Advantest, ASML, Teradyne, and Plasma-Therm achieve 5 VLSI Star Ratings in the 2018 10 BES

https://www.vlsiresearch.com/public/cms_pdf_upload/press_10best_v18.05/10best_v18.05.htm

 

[qwerrty]

Huawei Server Efforts: Hi1620 and Arm’s Big Server Core, Ares

For at least four years now, Arm has been pushing its efforts to be a big part of the modern day server, the modern day data center, and in the cloud as a true enterprise player. Arm cores are found in plenty of places in the server world, with big deployments for its smartphone focused Cortex core family in big chips. However, for those same four years, we have been requesting a high-performance core, to compete in single threaded workloads with x86. That core is Ares, due out in 2019, and while Arm hasn’t officially lifted the lid on the details yet, Huawei has already announced it has hardware with Ares cores at its center.

Huawei Is A BIG Company
Normally at AnandTech when we discuss Huawei, it is in the context of smartphones and devices such as the Mate 20, or smartphone chips like the Kirin family. These both fall under Huawei’s ‘Consumer Business Group’, which accounts for just under half of the company’s revenue. One of Huawei’s other groups is its Enterprise wing, which is almost as big, and it creates a lot of custom hardware and silicon using its in-house design team, HiSilicon. HiSilicon’s remit goes all the way from smartphones to modems to SSD controllers to PCIe controllers and also high-performance enterprise compute processors.

...And It Makes Server CPUs
Last month, Huawei’s Enterprise Group lifted the lid on its fourth generation data center processor. Part of the TaiShan family, the Hi1620 would follow hardware such as the Hi1616 in being built using Arm IP. The new Hi1620 was announced as the world’s first 7nm processor for the data center, with the Ares cores being what would drive high-performance for its deployments.

The new Hi1620 will feature 24-64 cores per socket, running from 2.4-3.0 GHz. Each of these cores will have a 64KB L1-Data cache and a 64 KB L1-Instruction cache, with 512KB of private L2 cache per core. L3 would run at 1MB/core of shared cache, up to 64MB. On a scale of a consumer Skylake core, that means more L2 cache per core, but less L3. No word on associativity, however. One of the key question marks is on performance: a lot of vendors are hoping for an Arm core with Skylake-levels of raw performance.

Memory is set at 8 channels up to DDR4-3200, and the chip will support a multi-socket configuration up to 4S, with the coherent SMP interface capable of 240 GB/s for each chip-to-chip communication. The 4S layout would be a fully connected design.

IO for the Hi1620 is set at 40 PCIe 4.0 lanes, which is less than the 46 lanes on the Hi1616, but those ones were rated for PCIe 3.0. The Hi1620 will also have CCIX support, as well as dual 100GbE MACs, some USB 3.0, and some SAS connectivity.

The package listed is 60x75 mm BGA, which gives no real indication to the chip inside. But that’s a lot of balls on the back, and the package is larger than the 57.5x57.5 mm design from the last generation. Huawei states that the Hi1620 will be offered in TDP ranges from 100W to 200W, with the varying core count, but chips will be offered that can be fine-tuned for memory bound workloads.

There are still plenty of unanswered questions, such as the interconnect, but we really want to get to grips with the microarchitecture of Ares to see what is under the hood. A number of journalists at the show were predicting that Arm should be having an event in the first half of 2019 to lift the lid on the design of the core.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13620/huawei-server-efforts-hi1620-and-arms-big-server-core-ares

 

[JSCh]

IC design park driving innovation in technology
Li Xinran
13:55 UTC+8, 2018-12-25

Zhangjiang Science City

An integrated circuit design industrial park has been established in Zhangjiang, Pudong New Area as part of Shanghai’s effort to boost China’s microelectronic industry.

Leading semiconductor developers and heavyweight IT giants, such as Tsinghua Unigroup, Shanghai Will Semiconductor, GigaDevice Semiconductor and Alibaba, have launched their businesses in the park.

IC plays a fundamental role of national economic development. IC design is at the forefront of the industry chain, which is the key link to lead industry development and promote industrial innovation.

The Shanghai Integrated Circuit Design Industrial Park, inaugurated last month, will bring together leading Chinese and overseas design companies, talented personnel and scientific research institutes on its 3 square kilometers of land.

It will feature the most advanced technology, products, innovative resources and well-developed supporting facilities for an integrated development of the city’s IC industry, or an icon for “Made in Shanghai” strategy.

According to Shanghai Commission of Economy and Informatization, Shanghai had 239 IC design companies by the end of last year, 24 more than in 2016. Fifty of those reported more than 100 million yuan (US$14.5 million) of sales each last year, and eight with a sales revenue exceeding 1 billion yuan.

More than half of the IC design firms are based in Zhangjiang with their products ranging from mobile intelligent terminal chips, smartcard chips, sensors to power management chips and semiconductor memories.

After Shenzhen, Zhangjiang was second in China’s top 10 IC design business awards last year. Unisoc, a subsidiary of Tsinghua Unigroup, ranked second on the list while Huada Semiconductor Co and GalaxyCore were fourth and ninth respectively.

According to Shanghai Integrated Circuit Industry Association, Pudong was home to 279 IC companies and 64,700 employees last year. Nearly 200 companies and around 46,000 employees were based in Zhangjiang, which has become a hub of the industry. The city will further support the construction of major projects in the IC industry, R&D, enterprise cultivation and professional personnel training and introduction.


Industry boost

Zhangjiang River Front Harbor will be the home to the Shanghai Integrated Circuit Design Industrial Park. It is part of the Zhangjiang Science City.

In 2017, Shanghai’s IC industry reported 118.06 billion yuan of sales, a year-on-year increase of 12.2 percent. It is the fourth consecutive year of double-digit growth in the sales of the industry since 2014.

The Shanghai Integrated Circuit Industry Association believes that the structure of development has become more advanced and reasonable in recent years. It is more obvious that IC design plays a prominent role in the industrial chain.

IC design accounted for 37.1 percent in the entire industrial chain last year, compared to the 23.7 percent in 2011. The proportion of chip manufacturing remained around 20 percent.

IC design and chip manufacturing have replaced packaging and testing to play major roles in industry. In 2017, the total profit of Shanghai IC industry was about 8.79 billion yuan, 18 percent higher than that of 7.45 billion yuan in 2016.

Domestic equipment and advanced processing technologies have gradually replaced imported ones.

In IC manufacturing, Zhangjiang has a cluster of prestigious firms at home and abroad, such as Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, Hua Hong Semiconductor and Shanghai Huali Microelectronics Corp.

IC manufacturing is the backbone of the entire industry chain.

After years of development, the IC industry in Zhangjiang is constantly moving forward, and with key projects being accelerated. From design, manufacture, packaging and testing, to equipment and materials, every link in the industrial chain has been fully developed. It serves IC design firms in the upper stream and raw materials and equipment enterprises in the lower reaches.

Shanghai will take the advantage of IC manufacturing to drive coordination in industry and help to form a good ecology for further development.

Shanghai government has proposed to accelerate the layout of IC industry.

“For the development of IC industry, great efforts should be made to coordinate with the Yangtze River Delta area and accelerate the layout,” said Chen Mingbo, director of Shanghai Commission of Economy and Informatization.

The IC industry in Zhangjiang ushers in a new height of development. The building of more iconic enterprises for the “Made in Shanghai” strategy will be accelerated to seize the commanding height of scientific and technological innovation, and make greater contributions to the overall situation of national development.

Source: SHINE

 

[cirr]

中微(AMEC)被评为最佳薄膜沉积设备供应商

2018-12-26 16:21:05 来源: 互联网

在VLSIresearch（美国领先的半导体行业市场研究公司，以下简称“VLSI”）2018年12月发布的2018年度客户满意度调查（简称“CSS”）年终大盘点中，中微在全球薄膜沉积设备供应商排名中荣登榜首。

在刻蚀和清洗设备供应商排名中，以及在台湾晶圆制造设备供应商排名中，均位列第二。

（图片来源：VLSIresearch 2018 Customer Satisfaction Survey）

VLSI于今年5月曾发布了2018年度客户满意度调查结果。在当时发布的排名中，中微在芯片制造设备专业型供应商的前十名中位居第二，并被客户列为“值得信赖和推荐的供应商”。中微在另两项调查中也得到了客户极高的评价，在全球晶圆制造设备供应商中排名第三，在专用芯片制造设备供应商中排名第四。

这次VLSI的年终大盘点中介绍了更多关于2018年度客户满意度调查的细节。VLSI从1988年开始每年都会举办这项客户满意度调查，这是业内唯一一项让不同地区的客户对它们全球的半导体设备和子系统的供应商进行匿名反馈的调查，主要以供应商表现、客户服务和产品性能为评判标准进行排名。上榜企业名单中有来自美国、欧洲、亚洲和以色列的企业，中微是其中唯一一家中国本土的半导体设备公司。

http://www.semiinsights.com/s/bdt/15/35835.shtml

@TaiShang

TSMC’S 5NM PROCESS TO COMMENCE TRIALS FROM APRIL 2019

By Efe Udin -

December 18, 2018

As the world’s number one foundry, TSMC has a whole lot of work to do if it hopes to remain in that position. We have barely seen chips that use the 7nm process and now, the company has already gotten to advanced stages with the 5nm development. The 7nm EUV lithography process has been completed for the first time, and the 5nm process will begin trial production in April 2019.

However, as we all know, the semiconductor process is a high-precision technology that requires a lot of work. The new process is not completely developed by TSMC. Instead, it relies on the supply of equipment and tech from the industry chain. For example, its lithography machine comes from Dutch ASML. It is understood that in TSMC’s 5nm production line, there will be a 5nm plasma etching machine from Shenzhen Zhongwei Semiconductor(AMEC), which has been independently developed and has recently passed the verification of TSMC. Micro-Semiconductor and TSMC have cooperated in the 28nm, 10nm and 7nm processes. Now they have successfully moved into the most advanced 5nm process.

According to reports, plasma etching machine is a key device in chip manufacturing, used for micro-engraving on the chip. The processing precision of each line and the deep hole is a few thousandths to tens of thousands of hair diameter. The precision control requirements are very high. For example, the micro-logic device of the 16nm process has more than 60 layers of microstructures, and it takes more than 1,000 process steps to overcome tens of thousands of technical details.

For a long time, the core technology of the etching machine has been monopolized by a few manufacturers, micro-semiconductor started from the 65nm plasma dielectric etching machine, 45nm, 32nm, 28nm, 16nm, 10nm all the way down to 7nm. The 5nm etching machine will be adopted by TSMC. However, it is necessary to pay special attention to the fact that micro-semiconductor is able to produce a 5 nm etching machine but there is still a lot of work to be done before a 5nm chip is developed.

AMEC 5nm plasma etching tools verified by TSMC

Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment (AMEC) announced recently its in-house developed 5nm plasma etching tools have been ... first 5nm process fabrication lines, the China-based fab toolmaker said. Ac...

• https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20181221PD207.html

 

[JSCh]

BOE to Build Another AMOLED Display Plant Amid Rising Demand From Device Makers
TANG SHIHUA
DATE : DEC 27 2018/SOURCE : YICAI

BOE to Build Another AMOLED Display Plant Amid Rising Demand From Device Makers​

(Yicai Global) Dec. 27 -- BOE Technology Group plans to invest CNY46.5 billion (USD6.8 billion) in a factory for sixth-generation touch displays in order to meet demand for high-end smartphones and other mobile devices.

The Beijing-based firm, the world's largest liquid crystal display maker, has penned an agreement with the Fuqing and Fuzhou municipal governments in Fujian province to build a factory that produces flexible displays using active matrix organic light emitting diode, it said in a statement yesterday. The facility will be built in Fuqing, which is a county-level city in Fuzhou.

AMOLED displays are commonly used in consumer electronics, like smartphones, laptops, televisions and even smart watches. Apple switched out liquid crystal displays for AMOLED screens for the first time when it made the iPhone X, and the global market for the technology is set to reach nearly USD20.7 billion by 2022, according to Research and Markets.

BOE opened a similar production line in Chengdu, Sichuan province in October last year, sparking an end to Samsung Electronics' monopoly on the market. It is also building another plant in Mianyang, also in Sichuan, which it hopes will start mass-producing displays next year, and another facility in Chongqing.

The newest plant will make glass substrates that are 1,500 millimeters by 1,850 millimeters and hopes to produce 48,000 units a month, the statement said.

The three parties will set up a joint venture to handle the investment, construction and operations of the factory. BOE will chip in CNY11.3 billion (USD1.6 billion) for a 43.5 percent stake with the two governments holding the rest. The state shareholders will also help the unit obtain CNY20.5 billion in bank loans.

The local governments will also offer policy support covering land, energy supplies and human resources, and pledged not to bring in any other AMOLED or thin-film-transistor LCD display makers into Fuzhou within the three years of the date the JV opens its doors, according to the statement.

 

[cirr]

中国自研Nvme固态硬盘主控获得重大突破:读取超3000MB/s

2018-12-28 20:11:06

日前我爱存储网从上游供应链了解到，中国自研PCIe(NVMe)固态硬盘主控芯片性能指标已获得实质性技术突破，从实测性能看已经超过国外同类PCIe主控性能指标，主控性能爆棚。据了解2019年1月美国CES展会期间，该国产PCIe固态硬盘主控芯片将随国际知名SSD品牌厂商同台展出，并正式对外发布。

国产主控测试性能，从图中可以看出是1TB的版本，连续读取性能3375MB/s，连续写入高达2675MB/s。其中4K性能也极其强大！而且，由于是原型机，所以后续应该还有优化的空间！这个性能已经与可以与国际一线同台了！

该国产主控合作伙伴评测原型板 主控的容量适配，也是一个市场的关注点，同样也是技术上的重点，我爱存储网得知该国产PCIe固态硬盘主控芯片目前已经完成256G、512G、1TB、2TB四种容量固件开发，4TB版本固件也将会推出。

性能上以1TB版本为例，顺序读写速度3375MB/s、2675MB/s，随机读写性能最高可到达687KIOPS、431KIOPS，而且还在不断的优化中，最终性能会更好。

该国产PCIe固态硬盘主控芯片业务负责人向我爱存储网透露：“公司为此PCIe（NVME）的固态硬盘主控芯片的研发投入100多名工程师，3名博士，历经20多个月精心打磨，目前测试情况显示该固态硬盘主控芯片各项指标均达到国际领先水平。

当前SATA接口固态硬盘主控芯片，国内已经有厂商实现了大规模量产，技术实力已经可以与国际接轨，但在PCIe接口固态硬盘主控芯片领域，虽然有多个国内厂商陆续发布多款产品，但尚未形成规模商业应用案例(wrong!)，与国际同行的技术成熟度和可量产性尚存在较大差距。此次公司推出的PCIe接口固态硬盘主控芯片力争在2019年能够通过其高品质获得市场的青睐，获得一席之地，从而弥补国产PCIe主控芯片没有大规模量产的缺憾”。

我爱存储网观点：

1. 当前市场上NVME接口的固态硬盘货源并不稳定，期待这颗中国芯能早日量产， 进入产业链，为市场和消费者带来更丰富的高性能选择！

2. 正如该国产PCIE（NVME）主控芯片业务负责人所透露的，目前国产SATA主控芯片已经有多家大规模量产。但在PCIE（NVME）上目前还有缺口。

3. 一旦该国产PCIE（NVME）主控芯片大规模量产，将会驱动国内相关产业链一起升级，形成”技术——产品——营销”的新体系。我们期待！