The United States is stepping up its efforts to prevent China from accessing advanced chip technologies that can make gate-all-around (GAA) transistors and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips.
One of the key targets of Washington’s potential curb will be the Hefei-based ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc (CXMT), which produces DRAM for use in computer servers and smart vehicles, according to media reports. CXMT’s major competitors include Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and Micron.
Alan Estevez, chief of the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), recently visited the Netherlands to discuss adding 11 more Chinese chip making factories to a restricted list, Reuters reported Tuesday. Estevez then went to Japan to discuss the same matter.
Bloomberg reported Wednesday that Estevez’s mission is to press the Japanese and Dutch governments to put more limits on the China shipments of Tokyo Electron Ltd and ASML, respectively. It said Estevez’s ongoing dialogue with allies will highlight Chinese chip factories development of so-called high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, which can be used as artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators.
Reuters reported last month that CXMT and Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (XMC), the latter a subsidiary of flash memory chipmaker Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (YMTC), are at the early stages of producing HBM chips and are trying to source tools from South Korea and Japan.
It said CXMT has partnered with chip packaging and testing company Tongfu Microelectronics to develop sample HBM chips and has showcased them to clients. In February, XMC began constructing a factory that can make 3,000 12-inch HBM wafers per month.
Currently, five Chinese chip makers, including Huawei Technologies and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) and YMTC, have been added to the US Entity List.
In March this year, Bloomberg reported that Washington is considering blacklisting CXMT and five other Chinese chip makers.
GAAFET technology
Last December, CXMT caught the attention of BIS after it claimed to have made advances in its development of GAA chip technology.
At the 69th IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) in San Francisco, CXMT presented a paper to showcase a GAA technology applicable to cutting-edge 3nm chips.
An article published by the South China Morning Post said the design of CXMT’s GAA chips may involve technology subject to US export restrictions. But CXMT said the research has nothing to do with the company’s current production processes. It added that any accusation that CXMT is violating US export controls is completely inaccurate.
In the past, semiconductors consisted of planar transistors (MOSFETs), which face current-leakage and heat-dissipation problems below the 28nm process node.
In 2011, Intel introduced fin field-effect transistors (FinFETs), which have a vertical “fin” added to each of their gates, to resolve the current leakage issue. But the problem occurs again when chips are getting smaller and smaller.
This is why the GAAFET technology, which turns the “fin” into nanowire or nanosheet, was developed. The technology can help improve semiconductors’ performance and reduce their power consumption. It can also be applied to 5nm, 7nm and 14nm chips.
In June 2022, Samsung started the mass production of its GAA-based 3nm chips. The BIS announced in August 2022 a new law to ban the export of American electronic design automation (EDA) software, which can be used to design GAA chips, to China. It’s unclear how CXMT underwent its GAA research.
Potential curb
The Biden administration is mulling new restrictions on China’s access to GAA technology, Bloomberg reported on June 11.
“When it comes to AI, the US says it wants to have dialogue with China, while mulling steps to go after China’s AI sector,” Lin Jian, a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said on June 12. “This says everything about US hypocrisy.”
Lin added that the US action will not hold back China’s technological progress but instead will motivate Chinese companies to pursue excellence by relying on themselves.
Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Beijing-based Information Consumption Alliance, told the Global Times that US sanctions have failed to halt China’s chip progress but pushed China to pursue self-reliance across the entire chip industry chain.
He said the United States’ attempt to curb China’s chip-making ability was shortsighted and ultimately futile in the long term.
However, some Chinese columnists are worried that the export ban of GAA technology will hurt China’s chip-design ability over the long run.
A writer using the pen name “Uncle Biao” says in an article published on June 15 that apart from CXMT, a team led by Zhu Huilong of the Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has made significant progress in the development of “vertical sandwich GAAFET” in recent years.
He says if the US tightens the export controls for its GAA technology, Chinese fabless chip makers will face more challenges in designing 3nm chips in the future. He says Chinese chip makers should not underestimate the negative impact of this potential curb on them.
Read: China downgrades AI chips to secure TSMC production
Follow Jeff Pao on X at @jeffpao3
“Alan Estevez, chief of the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), recently visited the Netherlands to discuss adding 11 more Chinese chip making factories to a restricted list.”
I wonder how the Netherlands feels about being told to cut semiconductor related sales to its largest customer. These blinkered policies are doing more damage to friends of the US as they are doing to China’s semiconductor industry.