(Bloomberg) -- China’s Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. has made progress in replacing foreign chipmaking technology with homegrown alternatives and its latest storage products now rival global market leaders, according to new research from TechInsights.
The memory maker, one of a number of semiconductor companies subject to US trade sanctions designed to rein in China’s tech advances, is working with gear from Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. China, Naura Technology Group Co. and Piotech Inc., TechInsights analyst David Wei said in an interview. While the company still needs and relies on equipment from Dutch supplier ASML Holding NV and US-based Lam Research Corp., those domestic tools providers are taking up a larger share of the burden.
Trade tensions between Washington and Beijing have led to escalating export controls on advanced chips and chipmaking machinery to China, hitting companies like YMTC and Huawei Technologies Co. at a time when semiconductors have grown into a strategically and economically critical sphere of business. Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged his country to achieve self-sufficiency in such crucial fields, and YMTC’s product development is closely watched for signs of progress.
The Wuhan-based company recently upgraded its “Xtacking” tech, which stacks memory cells in layers, to a level where its NAND chip performance is on par with the best from industry leaders, TechInsights said in its latest research note. Demand for NAND storage has surged in recent months as the training of artificial intelligence models requires vast troves of data, and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. are the global leaders in the field.
Still, significant technical challenges remain for YMTC and its partners, which include Hwatsing Technology Co., Wei said. The new chip made with YMTC’s Xtacking 4.0 technology actually has 70 fewer layers than the 232-layer chip made with its earlier-generation tech. This was because the latest fabrication method had a lower production yield — the ratio of functional chips to faulty ones from a wafer of silicon — due to the use of Chinese tools and YMTC was forced to downgrade the specification, TechInsights said.
Naura, AMEC and Chinese peers like Piotech are all trying to improve their capabilities and catch up to US leaders like Applied Materials Inc. and Lam. That effort is bolstered by having large-scale customers like YMTC, which in turn has provided memory to Shenzhen-based Huawei for its premium smartphone released in the spring, the Pura 70. At the same time, Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co. is endeavoring to build advanced lithography machines like those made by ASML.
A Naura spokesperson declined to comment. AMEC and Hwatsing representatives did not respond to requests for comment, while Piotech did not answer several phone calls. YMTC said in an email that the company is constantly improving its product performance, and the change in the layers of its latest chip is not connected with the yield rate of any particular equipment.
Beijing this month advised state-linked organizations to use a new homemade laser-based immersion lithography machine, whose specification marked a breakthrough in the development of domestic chipmaking equipment. Around the same time, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration publicized a patent application from SMEE for an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine. Currently, ASML is the only company in the world capable of making EUV equipment, which is essential to produce the most cutting-edge chips.
China has yet to demonstrate an ability to manufacture advanced chips at scale without recourse to foreign-made equipment, and its lack of an EUV system could prove an insurmountable challenge. However, the country may celebrate advances like those by YMTC as evidence of progress in the nationwide push toward self-sufficiency.
--With assistance from Jessica Sui.
(Adds a link to TechInsights note in the 4th paragraph and YMTC comments in 7th paragraph)
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