Huawei and SMIC join forces to build advanced chips. (Illustration: shutterstock/達志)
Chinese telecommunications equipment giant Huawei proposed the concept of "Tao Ding Law" at the end of May, vowing to develop chips equivalent to 1.4nm process level by 2031. However, semiconductor research institution SemiAnalysis recently published a teardown report of the Huawei Mate 80 Pro Max, pointing out that although SMIC's process technology continues to improve, its N+3 process is equivalent to TSMC's N6 process, but it is still difficult to compare with TSMC in key indicators such as process maturity, yield, and production cost.
Huawei's latest Mate 80 Pro Max smartphone is equipped with the Kirin 9030 Pro processor, manufactured using SMIC's N+3 process technology. The N+3 process is a further upgrade of SMIC's earlier N+2 (7nm) technology and is currently the most advanced domestic chip manufacturing technology in China.
According to the teardown report, SMIC's N+3 process achieves approximately the transistor density of TSMC's N6 process, which is an enhanced version of the 7nm family. From this indicator, China has demonstrated the ability to approach advanced process levels. However, to achieve this result, SMIC must rely heavily on deep ultraviolet (DUV) multi-patterning technology, rather than the industry-mainstream extreme ultraviolet (EUV) equipment. This makes the process flow more complex, increasing production costs and affecting yield and mass production efficiency.
In terms of chip performance, the overall performance of the Kirin 9030 Pro is roughly equivalent to Android flagship chips from three years ago, still lagging behind the latest flagship processors from Apple, Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Samsung, especially in power consumption control and energy efficiency.
The report believes that the semiconductor export controls imposed by the United States and its allies on China, while not completely preventing Huawei and SMIC from developing advanced chips, have forced Chinese companies to adopt a different technical route. Due to the inability to obtain EUV equipment, SMIC has turned to DUV multi-patterning, DTCO (design-technology co-optimization), and more complex chip integration technologies to enhance performance.
Chinese media used a more accessible analogy: SMIC can produce "banknotes" with similar specifications to TSMC, but the production cost of each banknote is several times higher, and the proportion of defective products is also higher. Therefore, in terms of process maturity, economic efficiency, and mass production capacity, it still cannot compare with TSMC's N6 process.
