Tsinghua Unigroup, a large-scale semiconductor policy-oriented enterprise in China, fell into operational bankruptcy. As an executive of the company, who will lead the development of DRAM for information storage as of 2021 is Yukio Sakamoto, who was born in Texas Instruments (TI) in the United States and was the president of Elpida Memory Company. Including comparisons with Japan and the United States, Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Chinese version: Nikkei Chinese website) interviewed Yukio Sakamoto regarding China’s strength in the semiconductor field and ways for Japan to strengthen its competitiveness.
Reporter: Has the Sino-US confrontation affected the memory chip business?
Yukio Sakamoto:No effect. Because the field of memory chips is excluded from the target of US sanctions. Memory chips are generally regarded as general-purpose goods, and it is difficult to imagine military use without the strategic significance of sanctions.
Reporter: How to evaluate the strength of China’s semiconductor industry?
Yukio Sakamoto:China’s share of world semiconductor production is 15%. However, foreign-funded enterprises such as Intel in the United States accounted for 60%, while the share of Chinese enterprises was only 40%. China’s topic is research and development. Those who are responsible for the development of China’s semiconductor industry are from Taiwan, and most of them are technical talents in process management such as yield improvement. Inexperienced in R&D to create value from scratch.
TSMC and Samsung Electronics, which are leading in technological strength, maintain a balance between engineers in process management and research and development. After listening to the customer’s request, we determine the power and other goals of the semiconductor, and develop the circuit design and manufacturing process.
Reporter: How big is the gap between China and the world’s top level?
Yukio Sakamoto:Changxin Memory Technology (CXMT), which is at the top level in China in the DRAM field, is regarding 4 generations behind Samsung. In the field of NAND memory cards, it is said that China’s top Yangtze Memory Technology (YMTC) will start the mass production of 128 layers (storage components are), although the trial production of 192 layers has been started, but the number of manufacturing is too small to meet the discussion competition level of force.
In the field of logic chips for computing, even China’s top Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), the thinnest circuit line width of its products is only 14 nanometers (a nanometer is 1/1 billionth of a meter), which has been 7 or 8 years. previous technology. The world’s top TSMC is developing 2nm products, and the gap is not closing.
Reporter: How to evaluate the competitiveness of SMIC?
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