The dilemma of China Core: the design and test reached 5nm, but the manufacturing was stuck at 14nm and could not move forward

What is the most popular technology industry in the past year or two? Some people may say that it is 5G and the universe, but these are not much compared with chips.
In 2020, there will be more than 20000 new chip enterprises in China. By the end of the third quarter of this year, there have been more than 30000 new chip enterprises. The number of new chip enterprises last year and this year is close to the sum of the past 10 years. And the investment in the chip field has also doubled in the past two years, which is much hotter than the 5G, Yuanuniverse and other industries.
The dilemma of China Core: the design and test reached 5nm, but the manufacturing was stuck at 14nm and could not move forward
After the increase of enterprises and investment, the development of China Chip is also very fast. For example, from January to September this year, we produced 267.48 billion integrated circuits, an increase of 43.1% year on year.
At the same time, from January to September, we exported 232.98 billion integrated circuits, an increase of 28.4% year on year. The export amount was 108.62 billion US dollars (693.2 billion yuan), an increase of 33.1% year on year, which is far higher than the global average.
But behind these, I think there is still a dilemma facing China Core. That is, we have already reached 5nm in design and testing, but manufacturing is stuck at 14nm.
The dilemma of China Core: the design and test reached 5nm, but the manufacturing was stuck at 14nm and could not move forward
First of all, in terms of design, Huawei has designed the 5nm chip Kirin 9000 last year, and Huawei HiSilicon is continuing to research and develop. The design level is more than 5nm, and it is possible to reach 4nm. After all, Qualcomm and MediaTek have launched 4nm chips this year.
In terms of sealing and testing, Huatian Technology said last year that it could seal and test chips at 5nm. Now, enterprises such as Jiangsu Changdian and Huatian Technology have been able to seal and test chips at 5nm.
However, in terms of manufacturing, SMIC, the strongest company, can only manufacture chips of 14 nm, while Huahong Group can only manufacture chips of 28 nm.
The dilemma of China Core: the design and test reached 5nm, but the manufacturing was stuck at 14nm and could not move forward
More importantly, at present, we can’t buy the EUV lithography machine of ASML. At the same time, SMIC International has been put into the “blacklist” by the United States. It is difficult to buy the chip manufacturing equipment of 10nm and below.
So in a short period of time, like SMIC International, it can’t enter 10nm at all, and can only be trapped in 14nm, while Huahong is farther away from 10nm, and 14nm has not been realized.
The dilemma of China Core: the design and test reached 5nm, but the manufacturing was stuck at 14nm and could not move forward
And chip manufacturing is the most important part of the chip industry. Manufacturing can’t keep up with it. It’s useless to design and test. This is the current dilemma of China Chip.
It is not easy to solve this dilemma, because it requires all domestic semiconductor equipment, materials and other supply chains to rise to below 10nm. For example, the most important domestic EUV lithography machine, we do not know when it will be realized.