Posted on 09/15/2023 5:14:45 AM PDT by FarCenter
Whether a Taiwanese chip engineer who led Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) to make 7 nanometer chips for Huawei’s Mate60 Pro will be sanctioned by the United States has become a hot issue in Taiwan and mainland China.
After the unexpected debut of the Kirin 9000s processor inside Mate60 Pro on August 29, Liang Mong-Song, managing director of SMIC and a former engineer at TSMC and Samsung, is now praised as a hero in the chip industry in China, alongside Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei and SMIC founder Zhang Rujing.
After the US Commerce Department revealed on September 7 that it was gathering information on the Mate60 Pro’s purported 7nm chip, many Taiwanese news websites said Liang probably was being probed and would face sanctions. Scoop Taiwan News, a Taiwanese magazine, on Monday published an article with the title “The US is investigating Huawei’s new chip. A traitor of TSMC could be sanctioned.”
“Who led SMIC to make 7nm chips? Many people pointed fingers at Liang Mongsong, who had been accused by TSMC of leaking industrial secrets some years ago,” the article said. “People are interested to know whether he will be sanctioned by the US.”
“How can the US admit defeat now? It’s impossible,” former Taiwanese foreign policy planning chief Dale Jieh Wen-chieh told the media. “The US will definitely strengthen its sanctions against Huawei. This time it will focus on curbing SMIC.”
“The US may penalize Liang in accordance with federal law,” Jieh said. “If he does not visit the US, he won’t be affected. But if he has assets in the US, he will lose them.”
“Since he joined SMIC, Liang must have already prepared for the likelihood that one day he would become an enemy of the chip industry players in Taiwan and the US,” said Julian Kuo, a former member of the Legislative Yuan and a high-profile commentator.
“Liang knows clearly what he is chasing after in this life,” Kuo said. “His annual salary was only US$1.53 million in 2021, which is quite low in his ranking. Since 2021, he has donated his salary to his educational fund and spent a lot of time grooming young talent.”
Kuo expressed doubt that Liang has a large amount of assets in the US. Besides, he said SMIC gave Liang a 22.5 million yuan (US$3.1 million) apartment, which allows him not to worry about where to live.
“If Taiwan and the US think Liang is a villain because of the US-China technology war, mainland China calls him a hero,” he said.
Is there an actual point to going after him?
Presumably to deter others from following him. But it is likely to be ineffective.
It seems childish to me. He’s not a US citizen.
>> He’s not a US citizen.
I think that simplifies things. His assets can be seized without any legal proceedings.
Liang Mong-song Jumps Ship Again
Former TSMC R&D executive Liang Mong-song, dubbed the biggest traitor in Taiwan’s semiconductor industry for leaking trade secrets to South Korean rival Samsung, has jumped ship again, this time taking the post of co-chief executive with China’s SMIC.
https://english.cw.com.tw/article/article.action?id=1714
This is from 2017.
He left TSMC for Samsung in 2009.
Hunting Down a Turncoat
https://english.cw.com.tw/article/article.action?id=282
I don’t get it.
How can the US seize assets of a foreign man who worked for a foreign company and then a second foreign company?
In what way is this our business, because we don’t like it?
China has stolen hundreds of billions in intellectual property and we do what?
But this one man is guilty?
he didn’t give the big guy his 10%
Lol, it’s actually possible…
“There is no disputing that Liang is a technically brilliant man. He is named on nearly 500 TSMC patents. He has an obsessive dedication to technology and incredible knowledge of the entire advanced semiconductor manufacturing process.”
“He and Chiang attempted to leverage their connections to buy an EUV machine from ASML, but those efforts were blocked by the US Government. Thusly, some at SMIC felt it more prudent to focus on trailing edge nodes. But Liang is pushing ahead anyway to the 7 nanometer node - the last possible node achievable with older DUV technology.”
https://meet-global.bnext.com.tw/articles/view/47800?
He may develop a patent US industry might need to license.
Do not mess with top-quality people lightly.
“EUV lithography, a technology entirely unique to ASML, uses light with a wavelength of 13.5 nanometers. This wavelength is more than 14 times shorter than DUV light.”
https://www.asml.com/en/technology/lithography-principles/light-and-lasers
“China has stolen hundreds of billions in intellectual property and we do what?”
China has compulsory ‘partnerships’.
If you want to sell in China you have to disclose your technology to your Chinese ‘partner’.
“Below the 45 nm node, the combination of 193 nm immersion lithography with enhanced techniques such as multiple, i.e., double, triple, quadruple, patterning provided the smallest possible feature sizes until the advent of cost-effective EUV lithography. Quadruple patterning using multiple, shifted exposures, such as the process shown in Figure 8, effectively lowered the feature size limits. Quadruple patterning has provided a solution for patterning features as small as 5 nm.”
https://www.newport.com/n/deep-uv-photolithography
This is beyond my current ability to understand:
https://www.newport.com/n/extreme-uv-photolithography
The chips used in cell phones are quite capable and are ubiquitous.
Cell phones can be stored in metal containers to prevent their chips from being disabled. Subsequently, the chips can be installed into metal chambers in weapons assembled in metal-lined rooms.
The GPS systems of the chips can be supplemented by specialized navigational system chips to override possible GPS jamming.
I wouldn’t do business with them. Of course that’s easy for me to say.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_ultraviolet_lithography
The EUV light source creates the 13.5 nm wavelength light by using a laser to turn a stream of 30 micron diameter tin droplets into tin plasma. Livermore was a partner in the CRADA that developed the source, and I wonder whether it was influenced by Livermore’s work on laser fusion by igniting fuel pellets.
At any rate, the EUV source seems like a science experiment that the Dutch have somehow managed to get into production.
The other issue is that the optics are all mirrors. There is apparently no material that can be used to make refractive lenses. The mirrors are coated very precisely with a number of layers in order to make them reflective at 13.5 nm.
I wonder whether EUV is everything that is claimed. I suspect that the DUV production at 7 nm and coarser nodes will be with us for a long time because it is cheaper and quite quite satisfactory for all applications that don’t require the greatest transistor count and least power per chip.
Note that in solar cells, polycrystalline silicon is the most widely used technology, even though there were many other science experiment technologies. None of the latter turned out to be cheaper than polycrystalline silicon after the Chinese cost reduced the production.
Taiwan should kill anyone that works with china as should we.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.