There are a large number of chip design companies in the United States, such as Qualcomm, AMD and NVIDIA. These companies have world-class chip designers. AMD once had its own chip manufacturing factory, but it was forced to sell the factory, which is now GF, due to huge financial pressure. At present, only Intel and Samsung can design and manufacture processor chips at the same time, which shows that the construction and maintenance of chip manufacturing plants are very difficult.
In addition to complex high-end chips such as CPU and GPU, there are also many kinds of small chips in various electronic devices around us. Even in China, there are many companies that can design such chips, but their common feature is that after the chips are designed, they need to be handed over to the chip foundry for manufacturing, and then the finished chips can be produced and put into the market.
There are only a few contract chip manufacturers in the world, such as TSMC, Samsung and Guangfa. Because the manufacturing process of semiconductor chips is extremely complicated, it is necessary not only to buy expensive equipment and invest huge R&D personnel, but also to plan ahead and update the process (28 nm-16 nm-10 nm-7 nm) at any time, and at the same time, it is indispensable to have rich experience in chip manufacturing. TSMC invests tens of billions of yuan in R&D and new fabs every year, and will continue to invest, which is really beyond the reach of ordinary companies.
Excellent chip design can ensure better product quality and yield under the existing process, but if the OEM process itself is not enough, it is impossible to make this chip well, let alone put it into the market. MediaTek in Taiwan Province Province and many scientific and technological enterprises have also risen to some extent with the help of TSMC's powerful chip production capacity. Apple IPhone uses two different OEM chips at the same time, which will cause energy consumption gap and global users' attention. You can imagine how important the chip technology level is.
There are Kirin and Godson in Chinese mainland, but so far there are no chip manufacturers, and most of them are OEM. There are difficulties in talent and capital in China, and there are also factors that restrict the export of high-end equipment in Europe and America. Imagine, if you can't find an OEM, it's just a drawing, so even if the chip design ability is not strong enough, it's no problem to ensure its use, but without advanced and mature manufacturing technology and factory, this chip is impossible to talk about.
We often have the illusion that the chip manufacturing process is more difficult than the chip design, which is actually a common misunderstanding.
People who hold this view will often give such an example: in chip design, Huawei Hisilicon is already a world-class level, not losing to the United States, South Korea and other countries at all; In chip manufacturing, we have to rely on TSMC's OEM. As the strongest chip manufacturer in Chinese mainland, SMIC has just conquered the 14nm process, and there is still a big gap from the most advanced 7nm.
There is a logical problem in this proof: we have an advantage in one field of the chip industry, which does not mean that it is easy, and being at a disadvantage in another field does not mean that the matter itself is more difficult.
Similarly, taking Huawei Hisilicon as an example, although the Kirin chip was developed by Huawei itself, it still uses the public architecture of ARM, and Kirin's GPU is not self-developed, so it cannot be simply concluded that chip manufacturing is more difficult than chip design.
Chip manufacturing is precisely a money-burning industry, and the annual investment of large companies like TSMC will reach tens of billions. Chip manufacturing is often a winner-take-all market, which is not only technically difficult, but also requires high capital.
A few hours ago, chip manufacturing giant Grofonde announced that it would suspend all research and development of 7nm FinFET technology, which means that there are only three chip manufacturers participating in 7nm competition in the future, namely Intel, TSMC and Samsung, and SMIC is still in the second echelon. Giants like Grofonde quit not because of their poor technical strength, but because they could not afford to spend money on capital.
It was a very wise choice for Huawei to choose to cut into the field of chip design. Chip design is not only in the upstream of the relatively high-profit industrial chain, but also does not have a particularly high dependence on capital and equipment like chip manufacturing. However, this does not mean that chip design is easier than chip manufacturing (process). Huawei Hisilicon's status today is also the result of 14 years' struggle.
So it doesn't make much sense to simply discuss which is more difficult, chip manufacturing process or chip design. It is more important to look at those areas in the industry that can cooperate with others from a global perspective, and those areas must be done by themselves to avoid getting stuck.
Design and technology are difficult, and the equipment for making chips is even more difficult to manufacture. Bottom line: The chip industry represents the highest level of today's manufacturing industry, and owning the whole industrial chain can dominate the world.
Not many people really understand industry jargon. Anyway, everyone who knows manufacturing knows that equipment is a symbol of manufacturing level, that is, you go to a factory and see what equipment he uses. The more advanced the equipment, the higher the manufacturing level.
At present, most countries are stuck in the equipment for making chips, and the Netherlands has the highest level of manufacturing such equipment. In order to monopolize, the United States prohibits this set of equipment from being sold casually. ASML, the world's largest supplier of chip lithography equipment, produces 24 sets in 20 18 and 40 sets in 20 19. But even this kind of expensive equipment with a unit price of more than 1 billion dollars, they are not sold to the second largest economy with the fastest growth in the global electronic product market.
For ordinary people, mask aligner may be a strange term, but it is the core equipment for manufacturing large-scale integrated circuits. At the beginning of each chip's birth, it must be forged by lithography technology.
There is a story about a Japanese engineer who broke his leg in order to steal Germany's advanced textile machinery manufacturing technology and opened a restaurant next to a German manufacturer. By contacting German engineers, he stole the technology and improved it, but mask aligner himself could not steal it. Mask aligner is regarded as the crown jewel of the integrated circuit industry by the industry, with high technical and financial thresholds for research and development. It is for this reason that few manufacturers can produce high-end mask aligner. The most advanced 14nm mask aligner is only ASML, and Japanese Canon and Nikon have basically given up the research and development of the sixth generation EUV mask aligner.
Then why is it forbidden to sell it casually?
It must be said that the Wassenaar Agreement, also known as the Wassenaar Arrangement Mechanism, is called the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Control of Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies. At present, there are 40 member countries including the United States, Japan, Britain and Russia. Although "Wassenaar Arrangement" stipulates that member countries decide for themselves whether to issue export licenses for sensitive products and technologies, and inform other member countries of "Arrangement" of relevant information on a voluntary basis. But the arrangement is actually completely controlled by the United States. When a country intends to export a high technology to a non-member country under the Wassenaar Arrangement, the United States even directly intervenes.
Machines are always artificial. If you want to make the best machines, you can't just imitate them. The foundation of innovation is learning, and at the same time, you have to persevere. Now people don't give you the opportunity to learn, and it will take you a long time to figure it out, at least ten or eight years.
Come on!
Although the chip is small, some universities ask that if China has the ability to independently design and produce high-end chips, it will be truly recognized as a manufacturing power in the world. Obviously, China still has a long way to go, and it can't be done overnight. Over the years, many domestic enterprises have learned to be opportunistic, including ZTE, otherwise they will not be easily caught. The slogan of innovation is loud, but there is no substantive independent innovation. Enterprises develop puffiness, pursue profits but lose all their martial arts, and have no real skills. Our country has always advocated the spirit of artisans, but it has not created an environment for cultivating artisans. The whole society is impetuous and lacks the atmosphere of focusing on things.
The process is more difficult. For the mainland, the backwardness of chip technology is always a sting.
Take the mobile phone processor as an example. Huawei's Kirin processor, especially the Kirin 970 generation, has completely lost its design to Qualcomm and Samsung.
However, no mainland manufacturer can produce Kirin 970. Although Huawei can design, it can't produce, and it can only be handed over to TSMC.
Why? At present, the most advanced technology on mobile phone processor is 10 nm technology, which is monopolized by TSMC and Samsung.
SMIC, the largest company in mainland China, can only do 28 nm process, which was eliminated by Samsung five years ago.
And why does Intel rank first in computer processors? Because the 14nm process is used, the 10nm process is also mass-produced immediately.
China's computer processors, of which Godson is the strongest, are far behind Intel in performance. Why? Because Loongson uses backward 28nm technology, it consumes a lot of power, and its performance is inevitably far behind at the same power.
Why is the mainland still using backward 28nm and 45nm processes?
Processing processors need mask aligner, and the most advanced mask aligner is monopolized by Dutch AMSL company. The United States does not allow AMSL to sell the most advanced mask aligner to the mainland. The mainland can only introduce low-end mask aligner, and the highest technology can only be 28nm.
Fortunately, the mainland has now realized the seriousness of the problem, and SMIC has also increased its research and development efforts. It is predicted that the most advanced 7nm process will be launched in a few years, and the technological gap between China and foreign countries will be greatly shortened.
The chip is systematic. Only when all industrial chains are coordinated can they be produced, regardless of design, technology and manufacturing, but overall, it seems that the technical difficulty is greater. Especially from the success of Huawei Hisilicon chip, the process is too difficult.
First, the design is difficult, but it also has a foundation.
Chip design is a set of solutions. There are a large number of chip design companies in the United States, such as Qualcomm, AMD, NVIDIA, Samsung and Apple, with very strong design capabilities.
Huawei HiSilicon Kirin chip is also the same in China. With its strong design ability, Kirin Chip has become an important benchmark enterprise for domestic chips, and it is also one of the few enterprises with independent research and development capabilities.
At present, Hisilicon Kirin chip and Qualcomm chip are competing for the second place in the world, second only to Apple's A series chips, which has to be said to be a great success.
Second, the process is difficult, so China's chips are far behind.
In terms of chip technology, China is far behind. For example, China is still making 28-nanometer chips, but now Qualcomm has made 7-nanometer chips, which is at least three generations behind. Now China's 28 nm SMIC technology is Samsung's technology five years ago, which shows how big the gap is.
The same is true of computer chips. Intel will soon make 10nm chips, and we are still far behind. Moreover, chips cannot be developed across generations. You can only produce 28nm chips when you produce 45nm chips now, instead of directly producing 14nm chips, because the technical problems can't be solved across generations at all, and you can only overcome them one by one.
Now there are Huawei's HiSilicon Kirin chips, CAMBRIAN AI chips, and the development of chips in China is accelerating. And Xiaomi's chip is still quite low-end and backward.
Do you think Huawei chips can surpass Apple A series chips?
On April 16, local time, the US Department of Commerce issued an export right refusal order, prohibiting American companies from selling components to ZTE for seven years. Prior to this, although China had the largest semiconductor market in the world, it needed to import chips worth as much as $200 billion every year and $260 billion in 20 17 years. Although the ban in this case has brought a big impact to some enterprises, it has also prompted China to enter the era of "chip self-improvement" as soon as possible.
Which is more difficult, chip design or chip technology? Let's ask, what are the obstacles to "chip self-improvement"?
Although China imported a large number of chips every year before, it does not mean that there are no chip designers in China. In the past, because there were chips with excellent performance on the market, it was more cost-effective to buy them than to invest in design, and there were not many opportunities for researchers to design new chips, so the chip design industry in China was not active enough. Now the country pays more and more attention to "chip self-improvement", and designers have the opportunity to start to show their talents. In fact, in 20 15, the two Beidou navigation satellites launched by China used the "Godson" special chip independently developed and designed by China. It can be seen that although chip design is difficult, China is by no means without relevant talents.
However, China can never import the equipment needed for chip manufacturing on a large scale from official channels, and can only buy it in small quantities through special channels. Even if the core technology is mastered, it is difficult to manufacture successfully without the support of hardware facilities.
So although chip technology and chip design have their own difficulties, chip technology is more difficult for the present situation of China.
The whole process of chip manufacturing includes chip design, chip manufacturing, packaging manufacturing and testing, and each link is the embodiment of technology and technology. For the chip, the design and process are very complicated, but in comparison, the manufacturing process is more difficult! !
I have been fortunate to be an equipment engineer for 2 years in a large packaging and testing OEM company in the industry. Let me talk about my experience.
(Packaging is only a small part of the whole chip manufacturing process)
1, many processes.
The whole factory is mainly divided into slicing, welding, molding, printing, electroplating/ball planting, testing and so on. Every time the process or process is updated and improved, it is necessary for each workshop to do feasibility certification, change molds and connect the upper and lower process workshops.
2. High technical requirements
At that time, we worked in Huawei Hisilicon and Spreadtrum, and the technical requirements were very high. Sometimes the whole workshop has been tried for a month, and sometimes the ESD of the equipment has gone wrong, so we have to improve the process again.
3, the product yield requirement is high
The price of chips is not cheap. There are millions of chips in our molding workshop every day. If the yield is lower than 99.98%, we have to stop and trace back to the source. Major non-performing rate, the competent leader should be downgraded.
4. The equipment price is high
All the equipment in the factory are Japanese brands, and the total value of equipment in our workshop exceeds 500 million RMB.
5. The training period of engineers is long.
The average training period of process engineers is more than 3 years.
If domestic chips really want to catch up with Japan and the United States in design and production technology, they need greater efforts, policy support and capital praise! !
The process is more difficult. There are six links in the chip industry: EDA tools, chip design, chip manufacturing, packaging and testing, material supply and core-making equipment. At present, our biggest difficulty is mask aligner technology. As far as I know, only the Netherlands can produce mask aligner, and mask aligner is the core equipment for making chips. Without it, it would be "an idiotic dream". Recently, many people in Lenovo are shaking their hands to make chips, especially some well-known entrepreneurs are going to invest huge sums of money in the "chip movement". Isn't this ridiculous?
Even a country with strong science and technology like the United States needs help from the Netherlands. Companies such as Intel. Crazy. NVIDIA in the United States is the biggest customer in the Netherlands (ASML), and mask aligner in ASML is unique and monopolized by the Netherlands, so the whole world should pay tribute to it.
Some domestic enterprises have tried many times to acquire ASML mask aligner, but they all ended in failure. There are two reasons: first, I dare not offend the biggest customer, the American company, and second, I don't want to lose such a profitable business.
So now we need to calm down, understand the goal and find out the reasons for the deficiency, instead of fidgeting and acting on a whim. Only by recognizing the situation clearly and finding the right target can we solve the "chip" problem one day with the wisdom of Chinese people. Look at the future will be China's world!
Can only say that it is not easy, design and technology are barriers to the semiconductor industry.
This is also a problem that China chips have been unable to overcome. It needs the coordination of the whole industrial chain, including talents and industries, and it takes a long time to form, which is irreplaceable by Silicon Valley.
The answer comes from Li, a member of the "Tech Walker" team.