Preface
On April 25, CCTV News published a video saying: "The 'third-generation glass perforation technology' developed by the mainland chip team intends to create chips on glass plates.
In this regard, Zhang Jihua, a professor at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, said: "Chinese chips may usher in the opportunity to overtake in corners."
So, what exactly is this "glass chip", and what is the significance of its advent to the development of the chip industry?
"Glass Chips"
Yesterday, CCTV News' official video account "Xiaoyang Video" released a video saying that China's glass chip is coming, and if the research and development is successful, this will be an opportunity for China's corner overtaking.
The glass chip mentioned in the video is actually a chip made on a glass plate.
Some people may sound "incredible", after all, China has made many technological breakthroughs in chip research and development in the past two years.
Isn't it a bit whimsical to start making chips on glass again?
In fact, no, the mainland chip R&D team has long had such an idea, and has been in research and development, only recently, there has been a new breakthrough in this technology, and it will be "officially announced".
This so-called "glass plate chip" is actually a new technology, called "glass perforation technology", which will replace the traditional silicon wafer with a glass wafer in the material.
As we all know, "silicon" is an indispensable material for the development of chips, and the value is very expensive.
Not only that, silicon is not a mass-produced material in our country, so we can only buy it from European and American countries, while the United States monopolizes this material in the market and sells it to us at a price higher than the market price.
Therefore, even if China has its own chip technology, it will still be "stuck" in raw materials, which will affect our R&D process.
But this glass chip can reduce this effect.
The volume of a glass wafer is only the size of a fingernail, but it is capable of making 1 million holes evenly on it, thus connecting it in series to form complex integrated circuits.
Note that it is evenly punched with 1 million holes!
The complexity of this technology can be imagined, but there are many advantages to using glass wafers.
It is much more stable than traditional silicon wafers, and the manufacturing process cost can be reduced by about 50%, which can save costs and improve performance.
I have to say that the technological breakthrough of this "corner overtaking" is really wonderful.
Since the United States began to impose "chip sanctions" on China, we have not had the panic and compromise they imagined.
On the contrary, the US approach has angered the stubbornness and unyielding spirit that has been engraved in the bones of the Chinese since ancient times.
Since you are "stuck" on us, then we will do it ourselves, and it turns out that China has not only done it, but also done it very well.
China's chip technology has repeatedly broken through new peaks, from the original embarrassment to today's technological freedom, and even "far ahead", it can be said that it has taken a lot of efforts.
So, what are China's excellent achievements in chips?
China's chip development continues to make breakthroughs
On April 12, Tsinghua University published a research article in the world's authoritative academic journal Science.
This shows that the "AI optical chip" Taiji developed by Tsinghua University has been successfully launched.
The chip developed by Tsinghua University this time abandons the traditional electronic depth computer paradigm and pioneers the distributed photometric intelligent optical computing architecture, thus developing the first large-scale interference diffraction heterogeneous integrated chip Taiji.
The successful development of this chip marks a new milestone for Chinese chips.
This time, Tsinghua University not only has a qualitative breakthrough in traditional chips, but also lays the foundation for the later application of artificial intelligence.
Photonic chips have more advantages than traditional chips in terms of transmission speed and stable performance, and it can provide strong support for the development of 5G.
However, there is a major breakthrough in chips, in addition to the two strong research teams of Tsinghua University, as well as the Information and Quantum Laboratory of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.
On April 18, the Information and Quantum Laboratory of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Tsinghua University, and the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, successfully developed the world's first "gallium nitride quantum light source chip".
This major breakthrough means that China has not only gained a firm foothold in the field of quantum communication, but also become a leader in the field of international quantum communication.
The "gallium nitride quantum light source chip" is the core device of the quantum Internet.
It is like the wick in the electric lamp, with it, Internet users can have the ability to interact with quantum information, its importance is self-evident.
Quantum light source chips have always been the top priority of domestic chip research.
It is of great significance to the quantum development of the mainland, and the success of this research and development not only shows the strength of China's independent research and development from the side, but also affirms the strength of China's science and technology.
In fact, to tell the truth, the development of China's chip technology can have today's achievements, and it has to "thank" the United States for its unscrupulous means.
If it weren't for them "pushing" us behind the scenes, China's independent R&D speed might not be so fast.
U.S.-China "chip war"
Since the beginning of President Trump's presidency, the trade war between China and the United States has begun, and the "chip war" has been the most devastating for China.
China started late in scientific and technological research and development, and when the technology of the United States has matured and occupied the market, China's chip technology is like a hairy boy who has just stepped into society, young but with a persistence.
In 2017, Huawei entered the chip market with the Kirin 970, which is the world's first mobile phone chip to incorporate artificial intelligence technology.
Therefore, the hot sales of Huawei Mate10 successfully occupied the "leading throne" of the first brand in China, and successfully joined the ranks of Samsung and Apple, replacing Lenovo as the three giants of mobile phones.
This situation has made the United States feel deeply at risk, and they are worried that the market they have dominated for a long time will be reduced because of Huawei's participation.
As a result, in 2018, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued an announcement requiring U.S. chip suppliers to prohibit providing any products and technologies to Huawei and China.
Not only that, the United States also added Huawei and more than 70 subsidiaries under its name to the sanctions list, and TSMC directly cut off all cooperation with Huawei.
At that time, Huawei's performance suffered a heavy blow, and its market share fell for a while.
In addition, the United States, together with Canada, fabricated some ridiculous reasons to illegally detain Huawei's CFO, Ms. Meng Wanzhou, in an attempt to "threaten" Huawei, so that Ren Zhengfei would retreat.
Later, the United States increased the speed and means of suppression, from raw materials to technology, and even import and export controls, the United States intends to suppress China in the global chip industry chain.
In this regard, China is angry and calm at the same time.
China has a long history, and countless difficulties and even greater difficulties have survived, so why can't a small chip be researched?
Subsequently, Huawei began to work hard in a low-key manner, they put an end to all voices from the outside world, and focused all on research and development.
In 2023, Huawei will make a strong return with the Huawei Mate60, in which the Kirin chip is completely independently developed.
Since then, Huawei has completely completed the localization of chips and become a real "Made in China", and at the same time, it has also given precise counterattacks to US sanctions.
Since we want to do it, we must do the best, this is the concept engraved in the bones of the Chinese.
When Huawei was developing Kirin chips, various research institutes and universities in China were working together to develop them.
Whether it is a photonic chip, a gallium nitride quantum light source chip or now a "glass plate chip", they are all China's shining and excellent achievements.
According to today's situation, the development of China's chip industry has basically stabilized, so what kind of development will China's chips face in the later stage?
Looking to the future
Today, China's chips have achieved technological freedom.
Whether it is a new breakthrough or a research and development that is constantly experiencing failures, this proves that China has passed the days of "neck in the hands of others".
China has been working hard to develop chip technology, but when cooperating with European and American companies, we still have some dependence in it.
The "chip war" launched by the United States this time not only stimulated China's will for research and development, but also made us understand that only by completely mastering the technology in its own hands can China not have an embarrassing passive situation.
This year, the development trend of China's chip industry will completely shift from the trough to growth.
Huawei has gone through the difficult R&D, testing, and experimental phases, and they are heading for the highlight moment, and the just-launched P70 is the best proof of this.
According to last year's statistics, we can see that last year's domestic mobile phones dropped from 1.56 billion in 2022 to 1.53 billion, with an overall decline of about 2%.
It was not until the spring of this year that the domestic mobile phone industry gradually recovered.
On the other hand, China is also increasing its efforts to develop lithography machines, which is not only conducive to the better development of our chip industry, but also to protect the industrial chain can be completely in their own hands.
Before last year, China's chips have been in a state of research and development, and this year, one by one, one by one, has been achieved, which indicates that we have achieved victory.
However, this victory is not long-lasting, but time-sensitive.
In this regard, China is also very clear that only by constantly innovating and breaking through technological bottlenecks can it stabilize its position.
The United States itself may not have imagined that for the purpose of sanctions, they would actually "complete" Chinese chips from the other side, and cause their own technology to face overtaking.
Now, the United States has focused all its energy on how to sanction China's electric vehicle sector, but the facts will also give him a resounding slap in the face.
Judging from past experience, the final result of the United States is often "backlash", just like this chip war.
epilogue
Overtaking in corners is no longer an adjective for China, but an established fact.
Now, China's chip R&D field is still in the most critical period, and we only need to maintain the state in one go to achieve the real "far ahead".
Today, China has the best results and state in various fields, and I believe that in the future, China's technology will definitely amaze the world.
Resources:
CCTV.com: "Glass plate" chips are made CCTV discloses that mainland chips or lane change overtaking
Sina Finance: CCTV reported: The third generation of glass perforation technology has made a breakthrough, can mainland chip manufacturing be replaced by overtaking?
Xinmin Evening News: The Jiading Institute has made another breakthrough! The mainland has successfully developed this chip
China Youth Daily: The Next Generation of AI Chips! Tsinghua Cross Team Releases China's AI Optical Chip "Taiji" in Science