Technology Trends Stimulate Semiconductor Competition Chip Market Actual Technology Market

[ Hot attention of chemical machinery and equipment network ] Nowadays, the word semiconductor should no longer be unfamiliar to everyone.
Influenced by the core technology of the technology industry and market trends, the word continues to appear in news reports and popular science videos.
For a time, It seems that anyone who knows a little about the tech industry understands the importance of developing semiconductors
.
But do you really understand semiconductors?
 

If you search for semiconductors on the Internet, the answer may be "materials with electrical conductivity between conductors and insulators at room temperature" because this is really the definition of semiconductor materials, but in fact, today's semiconductor market in a broad sense is Including chips and integrated circuits, the reasons are inseparable from the connection of the three
.

 

An integrated circuit is a kind of interconnection of transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors and other components and wiring required in the circuit, fabricated on a small or several small semiconductor wafers or dielectric substrates, and packaged into a complete micro circuit.
Structure, in other words, semiconductors are the basis of integrated circuits, and historically, it is because of the emergence of semiconductors (silicon) that the technological development of integrated circuits has been promoted
.
The chip line above refers to the silicon wafer containing the synthetic circuit, which can be understood as the carrier of the integrated circuit
.
And because the three are closely related, in some occasions where it is not necessary to distinguish, the three can generally refer to semiconductor component products (hereinafter, semiconductor refers to semiconductor materials, and chips refer to semiconductor component products)
.

 

So does it mean that the impact of semiconductors on the chip market is absolute?
 

Actually not
.
It is true that semiconductors are one of the core raw materials of chips, and their reserves directly affect the country's strength in the chip industry, but this strength requires a prerequisite - the productivity of chips
.
The so-called productivity of chips refers to the technical strength of a country to process semiconductor materials and make them into chips
.
And this strength includes two parts - design and processing
.

 

　　The chip is very small, so if you want to improve the performance of the chip as much as possible, you need to plan and integrate the above components.
This process requires a very complete and reasonable design
.
So how many companies now have the ability to design chips? This data is actually difficult to calculate.
At least China has successfully commercialized design, and there are already two companies whose products are competitive with first-line products
.
The reason why it is difficult to count is because most enterprises do not have the strength to process, which leads to the fact that many originally reasonable and feasible designs cannot be actually put into processing
.
And this involves a special instrument - a lithography machine
.

 

　　The lithography machine is the core equipment for manufacturing chips.
Its function is to print the fine pattern on the mask onto the silicon wafer (semiconductor substrate) through the exposure of light.
The principle is similar to the pad printing of photos
.
Moreover, the higher the precision of the lithography machine, it means that more complex circuit designs can be processed and smaller chips can be produced
.
At present, lithography machines that can meet the needs of high-performance chips are only mastered by a few manufacturers
.
Unfortunately, since the manufacture and maintenance of lithography machines requires a high degree of optical and electronic industrial base, China started late in this regard, so there are almost no companies that can master the manufacture and maintenance of cutting-edge lithography machines
.
This has also directly led to the fact that China's chip production often relies on imported technical support, and the development of related industries is obviously limited
.

 

　　So does that mean that there is no turning point in this matter? In fact, it is not.
In fact, just last month, a company in China successfully completed the shipping ceremony of the 2.
5D / 3D advanced packaging lithography machine
.
In other words, China has actually been seeking technological breakthroughs in lithography machines, or technological breakthroughs in the chip processing industry
.
Of course, this process is long, so long that if time does not give us an answer, it is difficult for us to know what our results are, but at least for those gratifying results that continue to emerge, we have enough reasons to be proud and full of them.
Hope
.

 

　　Original title: Technology trends stimulate semiconductor competition, the chip market is actually a technology market