China falling behind in the semiconductor race

The technological race between China and Taiwan in the semiconductor industry appears to be increasingly clear, with China falling further and further behind. According to Gerald Yin Zhiyao, president and general director of AMEC (Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment China), Chinese chip manufacturing equipment is between 5 and 10 years behind its main competitors in terms of quality and reliability.

This is an important and significant statement, given that Gerald Yin Zhiyao is one of the leading Chinese experts in the field of semiconductor production equipment. However, the president of AMEC also made clear the remarkable effort that Chinese companies have made in recent years to overcome this gap.

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China is behind, but is moving towards self-sufficiency

During a roundtable that took place at the end of last July, Gerald Yin Zhiyao spoke a little about this situation, but he seemed optimistic about China’s efforts so far. He further revealed that he believed it would take ten years for China to find a viable solution to achieving self-sufficiency in semiconductor manufacturing.

However, thanks to the joint efforts of hundreds of Chinese companies, he predicts that China will be able to achieve basic self-sufficiency this year. And this progress is very important for China, as the country is seeking to reduce its dependence on foreign technologies, especially in the strategic sector of semiconductors.

Taiwan remains ahead in technological competition

Despite the Chinese effort, experts say that China is still far from Taiwan’s technological capabilities, especially TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), which is currently the world leader in the chip market and has approximately 60% of the manufacturing market share. of semiconductors and is rapidly moving towards the production of chips with 2 nanometer technology.

Chinese companies such as SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation) and Hua Hong Semiconductor are at least five years behind global leaders in terms of technological innovation.

Wu Cheng-wen, head of Taiwan’s National Science Council, reinforces that the Chinese semiconductor industry is more than ten years behind Taiwan’s. He highlights that, while TSMC is preparing to manufacture chips in 2nm nodes, SMIC is still struggling to produce 7nm integrated circuits, using less advanced techniques, such as “multiple patterning”.

Although SMIC may be trying to achieve 5nm chip production, the results are still questionable.

The importance of advanced lithography equipment

It is worth mentioning that China still has barriers that help keep this distance even greater. One is limited access to extreme ultraviolet (UVE) lithography equipment, which is essential for manufacturing next-generation chips.

Companies like TSMC, which have access to these machines from ASML, a Dutch company, are at the forefront of semiconductor technology. Without this equipment, SMIC risks becoming stagnant at 3nm unless China develops its own UVE lithography technology.

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