This year, the first Chinese chip manufacturer, represented by the largest local contractor SMIC, will begin production of chips based on 14nm technology with FinFET vertical transistors. The second Chinese chip manufacturer to adopt the 14nm technology and FinFET transistors will be the Shanghai company Huali Microelectronics (HLMC). This was announced on Thursday at the opening of SEMICON China 2019 by HLMC's Vice President for Research and Development, Shao Hua.
Huali Microelectronics plans to implement the 14nm process developed in China by the end of 2020. The company already has a 28nm HKC process and is preparing to introduce the 28nm HKC+ process into production by the end of this year. Both processes are similar to the well-known TSMC, GlobalFoundries, Samsung, and Intel under the abbreviation HKMG (high-k metal gate technology). The 28nm HKC process is aimed at producing high-performance chips, while the 28nm HKC+ allows for the creation of ultra-low-power solutions. Interestingly, Huali is linked to the production of 28nm x86-compatible processors for Zhaoxin (resulting from the continuation of developments by Taiwan's VIA Technologies).
Huali Microelectronics' current manufacturing facility for processing 300mm silicon wafers (Huahong No. 5 plant) is capable of processing 35,000 wafers monthly. Supported processes include 55nm, 40nm, and 28nm. Last October, the company commissioned its second modern plant with a design capacity of 40,000 300mm wafers per month. The construction and equipping of the facility took almost two years. Currently, this plant can process 10,000 wafers with 28nm chips monthly, but it will subsequently implement the production of 14nm solutions.
Source: 3dnews.ru
