China’s Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (長江存儲) has made progress in replacing foreign chipmaking technology with homegrown alternatives and its latest storage products now rival global market leaders, according to new research from TechInsights Inc.
The memory maker, one of a number of semiconductor companies subject to US trade sanctions designed to rein in China’s tech advances, is working with gear from Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc (中微半導體), Naura Technology Group Co (北方華創) and Piotech Inc (拓荊科技), TechInsights analyst David Wei said in an interview. While the company still needs and relies on equipment from Dutch supplier ASML Holding NV and US-based Lam Research Corp, those domestic tools providers are taking up a larger share of the burden.
Trade tensions between Washington and Beijing have led to escalating export controls on advanced chips and chipmaking machinery to China, hitting companies like Yangtze Memory and Huawei Technologies Co (華為) at a time when semiconductors have grown into a strategically and economically critical sphere of business.
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The Wuhan-based company recently upgraded its “Xtacking” tech, which stacks memory cells in layers, to a level where its NAND chip performance is on par with the best from industry leaders, TechInsights said in its latest research note. Demand for NAND storage has surged in recent months as the training of artificial intelligence models requires vast troves of data, and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc are the global leaders in the field.
Still, significant technical challenges remain for Yangtze Memory and its partners, which include Hwatsing Technology Co (華海清科), Wei said. The new chip made with Yangtze Memory’s Xtacking 4.0 technology actually has 70 fewer layers than the 232-layer chip made with its earlier-generation tech. This was because the latest fabrication method had a lower production yield due to the use of Chinese tools and Yangtze Memory was forced to downgrade the specification, TechInsights said.
Naura, Advanced Micro-Fabrication and Chinese peers like Piotech are all trying to improve their capabilities and catch up to US leaders like Applied Materials Inc and Lam. That effort is bolstered by having large-scale customers like Yangtze Memory, which in turn has provided memory to Shenzhen-based Huawei for its premium smartphone released in the spring, the Pura 70. At the same time, Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (上海微電子) is endeavoring to build advanced lithography machines like those made by ASML.
Yangtze Memory said in an email that the company is constantly improving its product performance, and the change in the layers of its latest chip is not connected with the yield rate of any particular equipment.
Currently, ASML is the only company in the world capable of making extreme ultraviolet (EUV) equipment, which is essential to produce the most cutting-edge chips.
China has yet to demonstrate an ability to manufacture advanced chips at scale without recourse to foreign-made equipment, and its lack of an EUV system could prove an insurmountable challenge. However, the country may celebrate advances like those by Yangtze Memory as evidence of progress in the nationwide push toward self-sufficiency.
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