As many of you know, the U.S. sanctions against Huawei prevent the manufacturer from obtaining cutting-edge chips if they were produced by a foundry using equipment containing parts made in America. Additionally, export controls put in place by the U.S. and the Dutch prevent any Chinese firm from obtaining the Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines needed to transfer complex circuitry patterns to the silicon wafers that are the foundations of SoCs.
SMIC used multi-patterning to build the processor used to power the Huawei Mate 80 Pro
Only one company makes the EUV machines needed to build chips using process nodes of 7nm and lower, and that is Dutch firm ASML. The latter is still able to sell Deep Ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines to Chinese firms, but these are not as capable as EUV machines are when it comes to building advanced chips. However, using a technique called multi-patterning, China's largest foundry, SMIC, uses a DUV machine to print and etch the circuitry features as many as four times. A more capable EUV machine would require just a lone pass-through.
The latest version of ASML's EUV lithography machine. | Image Credit-ASML
The goal is to get 2nm-class performance without an EUV
Things could even get better for Huawei as a patent it filed in 2022 will supposedly allow it to perform advanced patterning equal to 2nm without the use of an EUV machine. A report from the English language South China Morning Post says that Huawei is looking to patent a method for manufacturing chips that uses a metal integration method. This would allow the use of DUV machines to integrate metal structures allowing chips to be built offering 2nm-class performance even without the use of an EUV.
Will Huawei ever achieve 2nm performance using a DUV?
Yes. Eventually, this will happen.
100%
No. This is not going to happen.
0%
A veteran of China's chip industry tosses out some speculation by saying that using the aforementioned metal integration, advanced memory, and unique architecture, a 14nm logic chip made using the technique described in the patent could equal the performance of Nvidia's 4nm GPUs made for AI. Huawei's 2022 patent is still pending and was announced this past January by China’s national intellectual property regulator. Interestingly, the report says that there is no evidence that the patent has been used yet to manufacture chips.
Travel Easy with Nomad eSIM – 25% Off
25% off eSIM data-only plans & global coverage - enter code IPHONE25, sign up required
Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.
A discussion is a place, where people can voice their opinion, no matter if it
is positive, neutral or negative. However, when posting, one must stay true to the topic, and not just share some
random thoughts, which are not directly related to the matter.
Things that are NOT allowed:
Off-topic talk - you must stick to the subject of discussion
Offensive, hate speech - if you want to say something, say it politely
Spam/Advertisements - these posts are deleted
Multiple accounts - one person can have only one account
Impersonations and offensive nicknames - these accounts get banned
To help keep our community safe and free from spam, we apply temporary limits to newly created accounts:
New accounts created within the last 24 hours may experience restrictions on how frequently they can
post or comment.
These limits are in place as a precaution and will automatically lift.
Moderation is done by humans. We try to be as objective as possible and moderate with zero bias. If you think a
post should be moderated - please, report it.
Have a question about the rules or why you have been moderated/limited/banned? Please,
contact us.
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed:
To help keep our community safe and free from spam, we apply temporary limits to newly created accounts: