Foreign media reported that US semiconductor equipment maker Applied Materials (AMAT-US) revealed that due to the impact of the U.S. government’s expansion of the ban on Chinese chips, it is expected that some Chinese customers may change production plans or process technologies; Mature process development, fear of UMC (2303-TW)(UMC-US) operating under pressure.
The United States has expanded its chip ban on China to restrict the export of advanced equipment or technologies from the United States, including semiconductor processes below 14/16 nanometers, 3D NAND chips with more than 128 layers, and DRAM processes below 18 nanometers. These advanced process technologies must rely on materials, Equipment produced by American companies such as Kelei and Kelin R&D; with the fermentation of the new US ban, Chinese manufacturers have stopped producing equipment. In order to survive, they can only make a detour first.
Foreign media Tom’s Hardware reported that Brice Hill, the chief financial officer of Applied Materials, said that due to the impact of the US government’s further chip ban on China, some customers may adjust the process technology to ensure that equipment is not subject to the ban. Although Applied Materials did not disclose Further details, but foreign media believe that SMIC may switch to 17nm technology production, and YMTC may reduce the number of 3D NAND layers.
Although impacted by the chip ban, leading to the outage of advanced equipment, SMIC recently revealed at a legal briefing that it still decided to increase its production expansion plan for this year from US$5 billion to US$6.6 billion. Co-CEO Zhao Haijun said that the new chip factories use mature technologies that are not controlled by the new US regulations, and the control measures have little impact on the expansion plan.
In addition to the turning back of the foundry to a mature process, it has also been reported that in order to avoid regulation, some Chinese companies have begun to consider changing the design and expanding the use of mature process chips to replace a single high-end process chip in order to ship smoothly.