The 3nm controversy is a dark tide surging chip manufacturing giants to resist the upgrade of domestic semiconductors to meet the development opportunity

Reporter Jia Li

Under the tight global chip supply, the chip manufacturing giants have stepped up their full horsepower to start work, secretly competing, and competing endlessly in the chip 3-nanometer process technology (3nm).

TSMC's 3nm battle with Samsung has begun, the former has entered the trial production stage, is expected to be officially mass production in the second half of 2022, and the latter is expected to be successfully mass-produced in early 2022. Among them, Samsung 3nm has won the favor of design companies AMD and Qualcomm, and Intel may finalize TSMC 3nm foundry orders.

What is the significance of the mass production of the 3nm process for the development of chip products and industrial chains, and will the global chip usher in new changes? In this context, how should Chinese companies that have followed in the chip field make efforts?

3nm process confrontation upgrade

In semiconductor manufacturing, the 3nm process process is another technology node after the 5nmMOSFET technology node. Chip giants have launched a forward-looking layout around this technology. As of now, Samsung and TSMC have announced that they will put 3nm semiconductor nodes into commercial production, but the mass production time varies.

Before the mass production of 3nm chips, the market was already a dark tide.

According to the world's top ten foundry data released by the Tuocheng Industry Research Institute last year, the global chip foundry market can be divided into four camps: TSMC won half of the country, with a market share of 55.6%; Samsung's market share of 16.4% ranked second; UMC, GF and SMIC were the third camp, with market shares of 6.9%, 6.6% and 4.3% respectively; and the market share of other manufacturers was only about 1%.

Samsung, which has been the second oldest for many years, has been looking for opportunities to catch up.

"The lack of cores has spread around the world, disrupting the original production plans of chip giants, and while expanding production, the competition of giants has become more and more intense." Thanks to the just demand for smart phones, TSMC has always been the absolute hegemon of high-end chip manufacturing. In the 7nm, 5nm process, Samsung is one step slower than TSMC. In order to challenge TSMC, Samsung must seize the opportunity of 3nm small replacement. People close to Samsung revealed.

Although TSMC's layout of the chip 3nm process is earlier, and it has begun to plan to build related wafer manufacturing plants in 2016, Samsung has made more efforts and with the new GAAFET technology, it wants to achieve curve overtaking.

According to the public information of both sides, TSMC is expected to carry out risk production in 2021 and is expected to be officially mass-produced in the second half of 2022; while Samsung has officially announced in June this year that the 3nm process technology has been successfully streamed, and it is expected to be successfully mass-produced in early 2022.

The semiconductor and technology giants in the downstream of the industrial chain have also formed a confrontation camp. Under the global chip tension, TSMC may give priority to apple, the largest customer. It is understood that Apple plans to release a third-generation M series chip based on 3nm in 2023. Samsung also claimed that 12 partners, including AMD and Qualcomm, have chosen to cooperate in depth. At present, MediaTek and Apple are already competing for the first launch of TSMC's 3nm chip.

"The disputes between technology giants over patents are intensifying, and there are more and more contradictions. As the process gap narrows, the competition between them becomes more intense. However, although Samsung and TSMC have been in the 3nm layout for a long time, they are facing technical difficulties. Samsung GAA technology can improve chip performance and reduce power consumption, but the competitive advantage of the 3nm process process is relatively weak, and it becomes difficult to control the leakage current, and Samsung once postponed the mass production time. TSMC's 3nm process has also fallen into a technical bottleneck. Undoubtedly, the giants' grab for 3nm is a difficult and expensive battle. Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank, told the Securities Daily reporter.

China's semiconductors are catching up with the opportunity

Why are chip giants catching up so tightly on 3nm?

"High-end chips are the core of high-end electronic products, which directly determine the availability of electronic products. The process of improving the process is almost synonymous with improving the performance of the chip. At present, the process below 7nm is mainly used for smart phones and personal computers, especially for smart phones, the advanced nature of the core SoC process is almost the same as the grade of smart phones. Therefore, the 3nm chip process means another small replacement for the smartphone industry. TSMC and Samsung Electronics who will win the chip competition, will get orders and support from mainstream manufacturers. Yuan Bo, a senior engineer in communications, told the Securities Daily reporter.

He said, "3nm is almost the limit of Moore's Law, although TSMC's 2nm process has entered the research and development stage but is not yet mature." Therefore, who occupies the lead in the 3nm process means that technological change can be driven earlier, which is also of great significance to the chip manufacturing industry. ”

The development of the process to the limit will also allow major IT manufacturers to increase their stocking efforts as much as possible. "At present, under the imbalance between market supply and demand and human intervention, a large number of automobile and electronic companies have reduced production due to lack of cores, and the convergence of performance below 7nm has also allowed major manufacturers to simply sweep goods directly and lock the manufacturing capacity of head manufacturers such as TSMC in advance." This requires more chip companies to grow up quickly. HUAWEI CLOUD MVP Ma Chao said.

Yuan Bo also believes that "the performance of smart phones is actually in a state of excess, and since 7nm, the performance improvement of smart phones has become more and more limited by advanced process improvement." In addition, the Internet of Everything involves the electronics industry, and the mainstream chips required are still focused on mature processes such as 28nm and 14nm, so the promotion of the 3nm process to other electronic industries such as automobiles will not be too reflected in the short term. This provides a good opportunity for China's semiconductor industry to catch up. ”

In recent years, China's A-share companies have also grown up. Although compared with TSMC and Samsung, A-share semiconductor companies still have a big gap in technology research and development, but they are increasing investment in research and development. From the financial report, last year, the R & D expenditure of chip companies such as SMIC, Weier Shares, North Huachuang, and Huiting Technology was more than 1 billion yuan. Cambrian and national technology are also increasing the intensity of research and development. At present, SMIC has successfully developed 14nm technology nodes and has achieved mass production, and is preparing for mass production of 7nm chips.

Looking at the world, at present, many former chip giants have sold their manufacturing business to the foundry market on a large scale, and the manufacturing advantage no longer exists, while Chinese companies are struggling to move forward.

"Under the global chip shortage crisis, the semiconductor industry's foundry, design and packaging and testing links are all rising in price, an increase of more than 10%, and the market is monopolized by some giants, which requires the emergence of more chip companies." At present, 14nm can meet the needs of 70% of the application, there is no need to blindly follow up, domestic chip companies should seize the opportunity to gradually extend from low-end to high-end, providing a possibility for the curve of China's chips. Jiang Han said.

(Edited by Tseshandan)