SMIC: making 5nm chips without EUV machines?
New reports say China’s largest foundry has found a way to manufacture 5nm chips using deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines purchased before the US imposed export restrictions.
A story by Business Korea asserts that SMIC is making advanced semiconductors for its most important customer – Huawei – and is doing so without the use of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines manufactured by Dutch company ASML.
If true, this is a big win for the Chinese chip sector, which has been hit hard by US sanctions designed to limit its influence in the advanced semiconductor space. In fact, there's been much speculation about SMIC's progress in this area, with previous reporting by the Financial Times suggesting that SMIC had succeeded, but that its prices for 5-nanometer and 7-nanometer processes are 40% to 50% higher than TSMC’s.
Additionally, it's also been reported that Huawei's flagship Pura 70 smartphone features the Kirin 9010 processor, which is fabricated using SMIC’s so-called 7nm N+2 process.
