At current, SMIC ramps up manufacturing utilizing its 14 nm course of know-how at one of its 300-mm fabs, so preliminary volumes will not be excessive. In the meantime, SMIC’s plans embody build up a brand new 300-mm manufacturing line for 14 nm and thinner course of applied sciences with a month-to-month capability of 35,000 wafer begins per thirty days.
Moreover, the corporate is growing extra superior processes, together with these that may require excessive ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) instruments, that will probably be used subsequent decade. Actually, the corporate has even acquired an EUV step-and-scan system from ASML, however it has not been put in to this point.
The EUV system purchase is on hold. See above.
“There's a lot of concern for chip production being so concentrated, and it's only becoming more important for everything from aerospace and defense to smartphones and the internet of things,” says Sam Azar, senior vice president for corporate development and legal affairs at Globalfoundries, which has called for the U.S. to ban a range of TSMC imports. “A lot of that production comes from one area in Greater China. A lightbulb should go off saying, Wow, that may not be good for the world.”
Globalfoundries’ Azar says he isn't sure when the dust will settle on the trade war or his company’s suits against TSMC. Whatever happens, he says, tech companies and chipmakers need to return to supply chains that aren’t just clustered on one continent. “Having a manufacturing base in America, in Europe - that's a competitive advantage for us,” he says. “Be ready.”