Recently, it is reported that chip foundry TSMC will start construction of a new 5nm factory in Taiwan's Southern Science Industrial Park (STSP) this Friday (January 26th). TSMC Chairman Zhang Zhongmou will personally preside over the groundbreaking ceremony, which will also become The world's first 5nm factory. At the same time, Samsung Electronics has also started cooperation with IBM recently, and wants to jointly build a new 5nm process, and compete with TSMC.
TSMC's continuous force and precise layoutOn January 10, 2018, TSMC announced its fourth quarter 2017 revenue data and revenue for the whole year. The financial report showed that its revenue in the fourth quarter was US$9.21 billion, up 5.9% year-on-year, compared with the third quarter of 2017. Growth of 10.1%. TSMC's total revenue in 2017 was US$33.06 billion, a year-on-year increase of 3.1%.
It is understood that in the fourth quarter of 2017, TSMC's 10nm process shipments accounted for 25% of the fourth quarter sales; 16nm and 20nm shipments accounted for 20% of the annual sales. Overall, TSMC's main revenue in 2017 comes from 20nm, 16nm and 10nm process technologies.
At the same time, He Limei, chief financial officer and deputy general manager of TSMC, said that TSMC's revenue growth in the fourth quarter of 2017 was also derived from the launch of important new products from mobile devices and the continuing demand for cryptocurrency mining operations. It is expected that in 2018, the demand for cryptocurrency operations will be even stronger.
In 2017, Bitcoin ushered in explosive growth, from $1,000 at the beginning of the year to a maximum of $20,000, and the world shook. The influx of huge amounts of money has caused the bitcoin market to become chaotic. With the intervention of some countries, the bitcoin market has gradually stabilized. Even so, in the third quarter of 2017, TSMC received $4 trillion in revenue from the mining of cryptocurrency alone.
Of course, TSMC's layout is far from this. In 2017, the market just adapted to the 10nm process. In 2018, it directly launched the 5nm process. At the same time, TSMC's 7nm process has already received orders from more than 50 customers, including Qualcomm and Apple. And Hais and other big customers. These layouts have caused the pressure of Intel and Samsung Electronics in the same industry to double. This is not the case, Samsung can only work together with IBM to jointly develop the 5nm process, and want to market with TSMC. It should be noted that in mid-2017, Intel missed the market opportunity due to the late release of the 10nm process. Even in the case that the 10nm process far exceeds Samsung Electronics and TSMC, it can only end up with a "powerful nowhere".
Samsung teamed up with IBM to compete with TSMCThe relationship between Samsung and IBM is no longer a one-off. As early as 2007, they both worked together to develop a 32nm process. In 2016, the two jointly launched a new non-volatile "universal" magnetic random access memory (MRAM), which is intended to directly replace DRAM. It can be clearly felt that many of Samsung's technological breakthroughs have the shadow of IBM.
At present, the most advanced technology on the market should belong to Intel's 10nm process. As for the 7nm process, TSMC and Samsung are still in production. Some people even say that the 7nm process will become the limit of the current process. Of course, this statement is not unfounded. Some operators believe that as the transistor size shrinks, the width of the groove decreases. Within a certain size range, the quantum tunneling effect begins to function, that is, the electron has a chance to suddenly appear from the side of the "wall". The other side of the wall means that no voltage is applied, the source and drain levels are inter-connected, and the transistor loses its switching effect, which is similar to leakage. At a size as small as 7 nm, it is increasingly affected by "quantum mechanics." So, since the 7nm process is considered to be the current physical limit, what about the 5nm process?
According to the industry, if the 5nm process is to be realized, then the vertical stacking architecture of the traditional silicon semiconductor industry must be changed. At present, the research team is conducting experiments on horizontal stacking of silicon nanolayers. If the experiment is successful, then 5nm chip production. Just a matter of time.
For various external questions, Dan Hutcheson, CEO of semiconductor manufacturing company VLSL Research, once said that FinFET is a commonly used transistor for 10nm processors. It should be no problem for 7nm process, but if it is to be used in 5nm process, I am afraid No.
In fact, for TSMC and Samsung Electronics, the 5nm process will be the decisive point for the two battles. As for Intel, the two may not be in the eye, after all, according to Intel's official news, Intel wants to launch 7nm process around 2020, which is more than a year later than TSMC and Samsung Electronics plan. So far, Intel The reputation of the "toothpaste factory" was also directly taken.
When will China Core break out?In the semiconductor market, Samsung Electronics, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. and Intel and other giants are in full swing. Domestic manufacturers can only watch the battle silently, and occasionally get a "wreck", watching some bleak, but this is the current domestic reality. In fact, domestic semiconductor manufacturers have not made much effort in recent years, and mergers and acquisitions have also played a lot of fun, but they are not getting real technology, which makes domestic manufacturers somewhat discouraged.
As we all know, SMIC is the largest semiconductor company in China, but the latest technology is only 28nm. Although it is currently studying 14nm and 10 processes, it is still far from formal commercial and mass production. Huali Microelectronics, another major semiconductor company in China, has started to “close the door†since it dug the team of UMC. No new progress has been made so far.
In October 2017, SMIC heard good news, and Liang Mengsong will serve as the co-CEO of SMIC and lead the company's R&D department. Who is Liang Mengsong? It should be noted that Liang Mengsong, 65, has served as Director of R&D Department of TSMC and Deputy General Manager of Samsung R&D. The current FinFET technology is also one of Liang Mengsong's strengths. TSMC has said that “Liang Mengsong is deeply involved in the process of TSMC's FinFET. R&D and inventors of related patents."
During his tenure at Samsung Electronics, Liang Mengsong made the technology gap between Samsung Electronics and TSMC rapidly shortened. This also made Samsung Electronics retain its efforts when it expired. With Liang Mengsong entering the center of the world to provoke research and development of the girders, it can be expected that the speed of the development of the central international process technology will be greatly improved. On the other hand, with the increasing difficulty of manufacturing 5nm process, the time spent by the research and development of giants such as TSMC and Samsung Electronics is bound to increase a lot, which also provides a certain opportunity for SMIC to overtake the corner.
summary:Judging from the current domestic situation, after receiving the general of Liang Mengsong, SMIC's strength is bound to rise linearly. At the same time, after the support of UMC, Huali Microelectronics can not be underestimated. With the continuous advancement of the process technology, the difficulty of research and development will also increase greatly. During this period, it will take a lot of time to achieve a new breakthrough, which will also become an opportunity for Chinese semiconductor companies to overtake the curve. However, the technical threshold in the field of semiconductor chips is very high, and it is not the purchase of advanced equipment to solve the problem. Under the policy of "drug", China's semiconductor industry has just touched the door.
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