At present, in the field of advanced processes, many companies around the world are intensively laying out high-end and doing their best to enter the sea of stars of high-end chips. However, under such a development situation, SMIC has become one of the "outliers", Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing three places, investment of hundreds of billions, just to expand the development of mature processes.
Such behavior may be a bit bizarre, why as a chip foundry leading enterprise in the mainland region, but do not want to develop high-end chips? Today, SMIC is developing low-end mature process chips, what are the development advantages of SMIC?
SMIC expanded production by 28 nanometers in 100 billion
On February 8, 2021, according to the list of major construction projects in Shanghai in 2021 released by the Shanghai Development and Reform Commission, SMIC's 12-inch chip SN1 project was selected and was under construction at the time, with a total investment of US$9.05 billion in SMIC's Shanghai Lingang project, with a wafer production capacity of 35,000 pieces per month, and is also the main platform for SMIC's mature process research and development and mass production of 14 nanometers or less.
In March 2021, SMIC and Shenzhen Re-Investment Group cooperated to establish SMIC Shenzhen, which is also preparing to plan a 12-inch wafer production line, focusing on the development of 28-nanometer chips. The total investment is 2.35 billion US dollars, which is about 15.2 billion yuan. In addition, there is SMIC's Beijing plant, and the main production focus is also on mature processes such as 28nm.
At present, the total investment of SMIC's three factories has exceeded 120 billion yuan, so why is SMIC so obsessed with the mature chip process now?
Why is SMIC so obsessed with mature processes?
First of all, the world lacks cores, and the mature process chip market is broad
You don't know if you remember, last year, the United States required the world's leading semiconductor companies to submit core business data, and then within the deadline, TSMC and Samsung compromised. The United States does not take these core data in vain, according to the research of the United States with this data, the world's most scarce production capacity is basically 40 nanometers, 90 nanometers and other mature chip processes.
Does it make sense? Of course, according to the latest data from AFS, a company that forecasts the automotive industry, as of April 24, 2022, the global automotive market has reduced production by about 1.5855 million units this year due to chip shortages. The automotive industry basically uses mature process chips, and today's production cuts may not prove that the mature chip market is indeed very broad, and the demand for mature chips is indeed very strong. In such a consumer market, it is not surprising that SMIC will be obsessed with mature chips.
Secondly, the equipment is limited, and the EUV cannot be freely shipped for the time being
In October last year, the mainland held a Shanghai World Expo, at which Shen Bo, global vice president of Asmer, said that in addition to the EUV lithography machine, various lithography machine products, including DUV lithography machines, can be freely shipped to the mainland.
What does this mean? In fact, the reason why SMIC is so obsessed with the chips of mature process technology is actually likely to be because SMIC lacks corresponding lithography machine production equipment, and it is difficult for smart women to cook without rice.
SMIC is now in full swing to develop mature process chips, so vigorously increase the production capacity of mature process chips, so what are the advantages of SMIC in the development of mature process chips?
What are the advantages of SMIC in developing mature processes?
First, adequate device support
The development of mature process chips, itself the most needed is the corresponding equipment, that is, DUV lithography machine, in terms of DUV lithography machine, as early as last year, mainland Shanghai Microelectronics realized the localization of DUV lithography machine plus, in January this year, SMIC and Asmail also signed a duv lithography machine supply, worth up to 1.2 billion US dollars of extension contract. Asmail's supply of DUV lithography machines to SMIC will be extended until December 31, 2022.
In short, at present, whether inside or outside, SMIC itself has sufficient lithography machine production equipment support, which may not be the advantage of SMIC's mature process chip.
Second, SMIC has ample funding
On March 30, 2022, SMIC announced last year's financial results on the same day, and in 2021, the total revenue for the whole year reached $5.443 billion. The year-on-year increase was 39.3%; the net profit reached $1.702 billion, an increase of 137.8% year-on-year. It can be seen from this that SMIC's own funds are still relatively sufficient. These strong banknote capabilities may not be able to promote SMIC's development of mature process chips.
Of course, the development of mature process chips, in fact, is not the best way for SMIC's future development, this is only a temporary behavior in a specific period, the trend of global chip development in the future is still high-end chips, SMIC wants to gain a firm foothold in the future, after all, it is still necessary to lay out the high-end field, after all, such advantages, such development advantages, but can not be maintained like this.
summary
Samsung and TSMC marched into 3nm and advanced packaging, but SMIC did the opposite, vigorously developing mature process chips, which cannot be said to be incorrect or correct. After all, for now, SMIC is on the right track. However, I hope that SMIC cannot give up the research and development of high-end chip foundries in the future days, after all, only high-end chips are the main trend of global future chip development.