CCTV documentary "Great Power" tells you how powerful China is in the semiconductor industry

High-end manufacturing is not as good as Germany, electronic technology is not as good as Japan, and artificial intelligence is not as good as the United States... This is the most common form of tweet to China made on the Internet a few years ago. It is ironic and ironless. What is China’s most successful? What about it? A few years ago you might have been hesitating in your head for a few decent answers. But now, the CCTV documentary "Great Power" tells you the answer in the second quarter!

“Workers must first sharpen their tools if they want to do good things.” The documentary shows through the most eye-catching century projects in recent years, demonstrating many high-end gadgets to the audience, such as the first opening of a super factory, the first key technology breakthroughs and the most advanced disclosures. The world-class experimental platform has the highest level of Chinese and foreign equipment competing on the same platform. Then, the scope has narrowed down to the semiconductor industry. What important weapons in China are driving the development of the industry?

AI chip

At the closing ceremony of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, in the "Beijing Eight Minutes" directed by Zhang Yimou, China's new technological elements represented by "artificial intelligence" are stunning. 24 mobile robots "Ice Screen" and 26 roller skating dancers performed the show, changing lights, beautiful scenes, traditional and rich Chinese culture and artificial intelligence.

The main reason behind these mobile robots being able to accomplish such tasks on the stage is that there is a strong heart-chip. China has also mastered the “heavy device” in the semiconductor industry, the artificial intelligence chip.

In 2016, the Cambrian released the world's first commercial deep learning processor IP, the Cambrian 1A processor. This processor is based on Cambrian Technology's world's first in-house smart instruction set. It has completely independent intellectual property rights and provides outstanding versatility and performance in key artificial intelligence tasks such as computer vision, speech recognition, and natural language processing. In comparison, the theoretical peak performance at GHz frequency is 512 billion semi-precision floating point operations per second, the theoretical equivalent of sparse neural network peaks at up to 2 trillion floating point operations per second, and supports eight fixed-point operations and One weight. In a number of key artificial intelligence applications, the Cambrian 1A achieved more than 25 times the performance of the traditional quad-core CPU and more than 50 times the energy efficiency.

In 2017, the Cambrian authorizes Huawei Hass to use the Cambrian 1A processor and is equipped with the Kirin 970 chip and the Mate10 series of mobile phones. According to Cambrian Chen Tianshi, after comparison, the Cambrian 1A easily defeated the Apple A11 processor without relying on brute force and sparse technology. In addition, in the Cambrian 2017, three smart processors were officially released: an upgraded version of the 1A processor with a higher-performance Cambrian 1H16 processor; and a 1H8 processor for the visual field, with four optional configurations. , The main camera assistant, picture processing, security monitoring, performance and power ratio is 2.3 times the 1A processor; for the Cambrian 1M processor in the field of smart driving, performance is 10 times more than the 1A processor.

Chen Tianshi also stated that in the year of 2018, the Cambrian will launch two MLU chips with main reasoning and training, one is a MLU100 high-performance chip for data centers and small and medium-sized servers, and the other is for enterprise-level labor. The MLU200 high-performance chip of the smart R&D center emphasizes training.

Bitcoin chip

In recent years, bitcoin prices have continued to rise, creating many legends that broke out overnight. This has led to the emergence of a large number of "mining" companies (bitcoin mining is the use of computer hardware to calculate the location of Bitcoin and acquire the process known as mining.), And Beijing Bitland Technology Co., Ltd. (below The abbreviated term "continental continent" is the "coal mining" giant that was born.

Bitland was founded in 2013 and co-founded by Wu Jihan and chip design expert Micree Zhan. It is a start-up company that produces bitcoin mining machines, custom chips, and operates "mine pools" (bitcoin miners' factories). In just five years or so, Bitland has more than 700 employees and more than 200 AI technical teams. It is estimated that the sales of Bitcontinent will reach an astonishing RMB 14.3 billion in 2017, which surpasses that of home-made mobile phone chip designer, Spreadtrum, and is ranked second in the top ten list of China's top ten integrated circuit design companies in 2017, second only to Huawei. think.

Bitland has mass production experience in low-power and high-performance 16-nm process ICs. It has successfully designed and manufactured a number of ASIC custom chips and integrated systems, and its chip shipments have reached several billion. In early January 2018, Bitland brought the world's first tensor acceleration computing chip BM1680, and SC1/SC1+, smart video analytics server SS1 and other heavyweight products. This is a dedicated custom chip for tensor calculation acceleration processing for deep learning applications. It is suitable for inference and training of deep neural networks such as CNN, RNN, and DNN. The chip is composed of 64 NPUs. The specially designed NPU scheduling engine (Scheduling Engine) can provide powerful data throughput capabilities and input data to the Neuron Processor Cores.

Bitland also integrates the highly customized BMDNNChiplink chip link technology in the chip to provide stable, flexible, low-latency links on high-speed SerDes, enabling multiple BM1680 chips to work together as a unified system. Provide more processing power.

According to the plan, in 2018, Bitland will release the second generation BF1682 AI chip, and the computing power will be greatly improved. In the follow-up plan, there are third-generation, fourth-generation, etc. released one after another.

RAM

China's memory and flash memory chips are almost 100% dependent on imports. From mid-16 to the present, the price increase of memory chips has made domestic consumers pay a huge price, the price of 8GB single memory is three or four times before, and 128/256GB SSD hard drives. Also more than doubled. As a result, the localization of memory DRAM chip granules has always affected the hearts of millions of people. On the one hand, it hopes that domestic memory memory DRAM chip particles can suppress high memory prices, and on the other hand, it is due to pure patriotism. And national pride.

After Ziguang Zhao Weiguo entered the XMC and established the storage of the Yangtze River, the domestic 3D NAND Flash has unprecedented hope. Zhao Weiguang of the fourth World Internet Conference at the end of 2017 stated that in the field of storage, Ziguang has developed 32-layer, 64-G, three-dimensional flash chips with completely independent intellectual property rights, and will achieve mass production in 2018.

Yangtze River Storage is a storage chip company established after the acquisition of Wuhan Xinxin Technology Co., Ltd. by Ziguang Company. It started construction of the nation’s largest storage chip base in Wuhan with a total investment of more than US$24 billion. Currently, it is building a first-phase project mainly targeting 3D flash memory. In September 2017, the delivery room was capped in advance and the progress was very smooth. In addition to the delivery room, the development of 3D flash memory chips is also in progress. The first 32-layer 3D introduced at the end of 17th is a milestone event in the domestic 3D flash memory chip business.

If there is a certain gap between the domestic flash memory and the 64-layer 3D flash memory that Samsung and Toshiba have mass-produced this year, the 32-layer stack is produced by these companies last year and the year before. However, the development time of domestic memory chips is too short to realize. From scratch, the process is naturally more difficult than Samsung and other companies. In addition, the successful smooth storage of Yangtze River Storage's 32-layer stack of 3D flash memory laid the foundation for future growth, because they are not planning to mass-produce 32-story, but will directly mass produce 64-story stack of 3D flash memory next year, further with the international Mainstream level convergence. The successful development of 32-layer 3D flash memory can now provide experience and train the team.

According to the plan for the storage of the Yangtze River, they are expected to officially start 3D flash memory production in the second half of 2018. The initial production capacity is only 5,000 wafers/month. However, once the yield problem is solved, large-scale production will follow and the design capacity of the Wuhan base will be established. It can eventually reach 300,000 wafers/month, and it is enough to match the production capacity of companies like SKHynix and Toshiba in the future.

SiC

Silicon carbide is a typical representative of third-generation semiconductor materials. Compared with traditional silicon materials, thermal conductivity is increased by 3 times, the speed of saturation electrons is increased by two times, energy consumption is reduced by more than 20%, and it can be widely used in electric vehicles and tracks. Transportation, smart grid, communications radar, aerospace and other important national economic and military fields. For a long time, our country’s silicon carbide mainly relies on imports.

In February 2018, China's first 6-inch silicon carbide production line was successfully interconnected in Yizhuang, Beijing. This proves that China has reached the international advanced level in the field of semiconductor materials and has improved the international competitiveness of China's manufacturing industry. At the same time, the completion of the production line is the first time that China has achieved the complete industrial chain of silicon carbide, and it is autonomous and controllable from the source of the industrial chain.

This production line was completed by Beijing Century Gold Semiconductor Co., Ltd., a development zone company. The successful production of this line effectively improved the international competitiveness of China's high-end manufacturing industry.

7nm chip etching machine

At this stage, the most advanced technology node in the semiconductor industry's energy production is 7nm, and TSMC is fully ahead of the rest. In terms of 7-nanometer process equipment, it includes five major equipment suppliers including Applied Materials, Colin Research and Development (LAM), Tokyo Powertronics (TEL), Hitachi, Hitachi, and China Microelectronics. China Microelectronics is the only domestic equipment manufacturer that has entered the 7-nanometer process etching equipment of TSMC. Semiconductor chips are the cornerstone of the information age and are today's cutting-edge manufacturing commanding points. Chip manufacturing, which has entered the mass production era of 10nm to 7nm devices, is an area that China cannot afford to lose. It is also an area where China is currently making great efforts to develop.

China Micro's 7-nanometer chip etcher is the first 7-nanometer chip etcher independently developed by China. It is one of the core and most advanced devices for chip manufacturing and micro-machining. It uses plasma etching technology. Using a chemically active plasma, a microscopic circuit was carved on a silicon wafer.

7 nanometers is equivalent to one ten thousandth of the diameter of the hair wire, which is the smallest integrated circuit wiring pitch that humans can currently manufacture on a large production line, which is already approaching the limit of microscopic processing. In ICP chip etching, there is a one-to-one correspondence between the size of the critical dimension and the chip temperature. If we require the uniformity of etching to reach 1 nanometer, then the temperature difference of the whole chip will be controlled within 2 degrees. The self-developed temperature control design of Sino-micro, can make the temperature control accuracy of the etching process within 0.75 degrees, better than the international level.

The gas shower plate is one of the most important core components of the etching machine, and it is also a key technical point in the 7-nanometer chip etching machine. Its material selection and design are critical to the impact of the etcher performance metrics. In cooperation with domestic manufacturers, Microelectronics has developed and optimized a set of plasma enhanced meteorological methods for depositing cermets. This innovative method has greatly improved the performance of materials. The crystal grains are finer, denser and have almost the same defects. Zero. Compared with the spray discs currently used abroad, the life of ceramic coating spray discs in China can be doubled and the cost is less than one-fifth. The 7-nanometer chip etching machine independently developed by China Microelectronics makes China's chip manufacturing equipment make up for short boards and stands high-end and is synchronized with the world's most advanced level.

Flexible display

With regard to the future of mobile phone modeling, the industry is now working on a concept map for the concept of a foldable mobile phone. To realize such a foldable mobile phone, a flexible display screen is the key.

As the world's largest demand market for LCD panels, China has become the world's largest producer of high-end LCD panel production lines, with both smart screens and touch screens ranking first in the world.

At present, China ushered in the era of flexible screens, BOE Chengdu B7 plant took the lead in mass production, and it is also the second production line to achieve flexible screen mass production. The factory area is close to seven "Water Cube"! In the pre-production limit test of flexible screens, flexible screens tested in water can be arbitrarily twisted. Low-power, high-resolution flexible screens with only 0.03 mm thickness are bringing a global revolution to the terminal display area. 3000 engineers, 10 years of reserves, 40,000 technical difficulties to break through. In "Powers of Great Power", BOE (BOE) Chengdu 6th-generation flexible AMOLED production line has monthly production capacity of 48,000 pieces, mainly producing medium and small-sized flexible AMOLED displays. After the project reaches its capacity, it will invest 576,000 pieces of 6th generation glass substrates, and it will be able to ship more than 90 million high-end flexible displays within its annual production capacity. The annual output value is expected to exceed 30 billion yuan. This super factory is expected to end the dilemma of lack of screens in China. , Leading China to a Manufacturing Powerhouse with Flexible Display Screens!

Policy Support + Big Fund Investment

In addition, China has to develop a semiconductor industry, there is a very important "soft" weight - policy support and investment in large funds.

In March 2017, Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council mentioned in the government work report that it is necessary to accelerate the cultivation and growth of emerging industries. Fully implement the strategic emerging industry development plan, accelerate the research and development and transformation of technologies such as new materials, artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, biopharmaceuticals, and fifth-generation mobile communications to enlarge and strengthen industrial clusters. This is the first time that "artificial intelligence" has been included in the government work report.

In March 2018, Premier Li Keqiang pointed out in the government work report that “promote the development of integrated circuits, fifth-generation mobile communications, aircraft engines, new energy vehicles, new materials, etc.” and put the development of the integrated circuit industry in the development of the real economy. The first place emphasizes.

In addition to policy support, the country’s investment in money is also unambiguous. In June 2014, the state issued the "National Outline for the Promotion of the Integrated Circuit Industry", which improved the implementation of a series of measures to support the development of the integrated circuit industry and set a phased goal. It was followed by the establishment of a national IC industry investment in September 2014. Funds (commonly known as "large funds") are mainly used for investment in the integrated circuit industry to support the growth of the industry.

As of the end of 2016, the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund Co., Ltd. "Large Fund" made a total of 43 investment decisions in more than two years, accumulative project commitments amounted to 81.8 billion yuan, and the actual investment exceeded 56 billion yuan; the project has been covered Integrated circuit design, manufacturing, packaging and testing, equipment, materials, ecological construction and other links have achieved a complete layout in the industry chain, leading to more than 150 billion yuan in social financing.

With these powerful devices, the future of China's semiconductor industry will surely reach a level never before seen.