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China may be a decade behind Taiwan and TSMC when it comes to semiconductor manufacturing, according to Cheng-Wen Wu, the chairperson of the Taiwanese National Science Council. Wu made the remarks during a briefing at the Taiwanese legislature yesterday after he was asked about media reports suggesting that a tear down of Huawei’s latest smartphones indicated that China had managed to catch up with its chip manufacturing technology.
In response, he shared that since TSMC’s leading edge 2 nanometer semiconductor technology is slated to go into mass production in 2025, according to his estimates, the gap between Taiwan and China should be more than ten years.
TSMC’s 2 nanometer Chip Manufacturing Provides Taiwan A Sizable Edge Over China, Says Taiwanese Minister
Tear downs of Huawei’s latest smartphones have been quite popular in the media as they have often revealed advanced processors that hint at China’s growing chip manufacturing capabilities. Some, including a recent one of the Pura 70 smartphone, have once again revealed a 7 nanometer processor purportedly manufactured by China’s leading chip manufacturer, the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC). US chip sanctions against China have targeted 7 nanometer and smaller chips, and as a result, the tear downs have led to speculation of faster chip development in China.
However, Taiwan’s Minister of the National Science Council, Cheng-Wen Wu, believes that the island is at least ten years ahead of China when it comes to making advanced chips. During a recent session of the Taiwanese legislature, Wu was asked by legislator Wu Pei-Yi whether the Pura 70 tear downs indicated that China might be as close as three years behind TSMC when it comes to manufacturing the most advanced chips.
In response , Wu replied that he “doubted” whether China had advanced in chip manufacturing to the extent that it was just three years behind Taiwan. He shared that TSMC, the world’s leading chip manufacturer, is ready to make chips with the 2 nanometer technology next year. According to him, this implies that the gap between China and Taiwan should be ten years or more.
TSMC’s 7 nanometer chip manufacturing technology first entered mass production in 2018. Following this, the fab introduced several variants of the technology, with its next major technological jump coming with 5 nanometers. However, while TSMC has progressed to 2 nanometers since then, the pace of evolution in semiconductor manufacturing is not linear if the chip manufacturers do not have access to the same machines.
A key factor that has enabled the Taiwanese firm to spearhead its chip manufacturing is advanced machinery. TSMC had started to use advanced ultraviolet manufacturing techniques via EUV scanners made by the Dutch firm ASML in 7 nanometer products. It gradually scaled up the use of EUV, and now, the narrative has shifted to the latest machines called High NA EUV. These are necessary for making the most advanced chips due to increased complexity and smaller feature sizes.
Additionally, a large portion of automotive and industrial semiconductors are manufactured on older technologies due to their lower performance requirements and ease of production. Estimates show that China is investing heavily in these older technologies as it seeks to create a domestic supply chain to meet most of its chip needs.
