- China further improves its 7-nanometer technology
Chinese chip contract manufacturer Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) and Huawei continue to make progress in domestic chip manufacturing technology. The mobile processor Kirin 9030 Pro and its derivative Kirin 9030 are produced in an even finer manufacturing process than the previous 9000 series models.
This is the conclusion reached by analysts at Techinsights, who have lapped a Kirin 9030 an…
- China further improves its 7-nanometer technology
Chinese chip contract manufacturer Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) and Huawei continue to make progress in domestic chip manufacturing technology. The mobile processor Kirin 9030 Pro and its derivative Kirin 9030 are produced in an even finer manufacturing process than the previous 9000 series models.
This is the conclusion reached by analysts at Techinsights, who have lapped a Kirin 9030 and examined its transistor structures.
From N+2 to N+3
In 2023, the Kirin 9000S was the first to use a Chinese manufacturing process in the 7-nanometer class, known as SMIC N+2. At the time, it was unclear how far SMIC and Huawei could refine this process without current lithography systems from Europe. Especially since N+2 is said to be a close copy of the N7 process from TSMC, the largest chip contract manufacturer in Taiwan.
The Kirin 9030 (Pro) now uses the next stage, N+3. Techinsights summarizes: "While SMIC’s N+3 process shows significant improvements in density, our comparative measurements confirm that it still scales significantly worse than the leading commercial 5nm processes from TSMC and Samsung."
N+3 is therefore most comparable to improved 7nm processes such as TSMC’s N7. Huawei is using the Kirin 9030 Pro and Kirin 9030 in the new Mate 80 series smartphones.
Left behind by the rest
Dutch lithography world market leader ASML is only allowed to sell older systems to China that work with deep ultraviolet light (DUV, 193 nm). More complex variants with extreme ultraviolet light (EUV, 13.5 nm) have been taboo for China since their introduction due to export bans. TSMC, Samsung, and Intel have been using EUV since at least the 5nm generation.
To further shrink transistors, SMIC and Huawei must painstakingly expose individual chip layers multiple times (multi-patterning), now apparently up to four times. Alternating exposure and etching steps with slight offsets allow for finer structures than DUV technology normally permits.
However, each additional exposure step also increases the risk of manufacturing defects. China’s N+3 technology is therefore considered expensive and is likely only possible with the help of subsidies. The Chinese government supports its development with billions.
To make matters worse for SMIC and Huawei, ASML has also been unable to sell its current DUV lithography systems with particularly precise alignment to China since 2023 anymore. The latest model, Twinscan NXT:2150i, can align wafers to within less than one nanometer, meaning to within a few atoms. This specification is to be understood literally, unlike the fanciful nanometer designations of modern manufacturing processes.
The Twinscan NXT:1800Di, approved for China, has a so-called overlay accuracy of 1.6 nm. China’s own lithography systems still lag significantly behind in this metric.
Lagging in Geekbench
First presumed benchmarks of the Kirin 9030 Pro show that the processor is significantly slower than its Western competitors. An early result in the comparison benchmark Geekbench lists 1131 single-core and 4277 multi-core points. For comparison, Apple’s current A19 Pro in the iPhone 17 Pro achieves almost 4000 and 10,000 points, respectively. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite reaches up to 3200 and also just under 10,000 points.
One reason lies in the low clock frequencies. While Apple and Qualcomm reach over 4.0 GHz, the Kirin 9030 Pro only manages just under 2.8 GHz. Even if the current results are still below the full potential of the Kirin processor, Huawei is unlikely to close the entire gap soon.
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This article was originally published in German. It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.