According to foreign media reports, according to a report by market research agency TechInsights, SMIC has quietly shipped 7-nanometer chips. After dismantling, TechInsights asserted that SMIC may copy TSMC (2330-TW)(TSM-US) of the 7-nanometer technology, may once again trigger a war of intellectual property rights between the two sides.
The TechInsights report pointed out that although SMIC has not disclosed the progress of advanced processes below 7nm recently, it has shipped 7nm SoC chips to the United States since July 2021.bitcoinMinerVa, a mining company, found that after dismantling the chip, the initial images showed that it almost copied TSMC’s 7-nanometer process.
TechInsights said that SMIC has been sanctioned by the US government and cannot obtain EUV equipment, but it can still produce 7nm process chips through existing equipment, and may even promote more advanced processes, although the current economic scale and yield are not ideal.
But TechInsights also believes that this is hardly a problem for China, because even with limited production equipment, SMIC can still develop its own semiconductor chip supply chain.
SMIC mentioned 7nm process technology for the first time in 2020. In the same year, it announced with its partner Innosilicon that the N+1 version of the 7nm chip was successfully developed, and announced that the N+2 version was under development; although it is currently uncertain Minerva sourced on the market by Techinsights bitcoinWhether the mining chip is related to Innosilicon, and whether it uses the N+1 or N+2 version of the chip.
In 2002 and 2006, TSMC twice sued SMIC for plagiarizing process technology, and launched an eight-year trade secret plagiarism dispute. The two parties finally reached a settlement agreement in 2009. In addition to compensating TSMC for 200 million US dollars in installments, SMIC also granted TSMC 8% of SMIC’s equity free of charge. TSMC can subscribe for 2% of SMIC’s equity at a price of HK$1.3 per share within 3 years.
However, TSMC actively disposes of SMIC’s equity in 2019. When SMIC was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in the United States, TSMC’s shareholding had dropped to 0.2%.