Can TSMC Samsung build a production line without American equipment for Huawei?

According to Taiwan Economic Daily , In order to circumvent the restrictions imposed by the newly upgraded export control measures of the United States on the manufacture of its self-developed chips , Trying to convince TSMC and Samsung , Build an advanced process production line based on non American equipment , That is, there is no American semiconductor equipment , In this way, Huawei's self-developed chips can be unaffected by the US ban , Smooth production .

According to the source , At present, TSMC and Samsung have received this request from Huawei , At present, we are actively planning , It is even said that Samsung has one 7nm Production line with non American equipment , It is testing production for Hisilicon under Huawei . however , According to xinzhixun , This news is not reliable .

According to the data , Among the top five equipment manufacturers in the world , American applied materials （AMA） The company uses 17.72% No. 1 in market share , Pan forest group （Lam Research, It's also called ram research ） With 13.4% Market share ranked fourth , Kelei, USA （KLA-Tencor） With 5.19% Fifth in share , Three companies in the world 36.31% Market share .

According to the semiconductor industry research company in the United States VLSI Research Published by sales 2019 From the top ten semiconductor equipment manufacturers in the world , Still ranked first in Applied Materials in the United States , Fanlin semiconductor ranks fourth 、 Kelei ranks fifth , Besides , Thalida of the United States is also one of the top ten semiconductor equipment manufacturers in the world .

From the perspective of various key equipment involved in semiconductor manufacturing , The four major semiconductor equipment manufacturers in the United States apply materials 、 Pan forest group 、 Kelei and thalida cover the lithography machine 、 The vast majority of semiconductor equipment other than gelatinization and development equipment .

according to SEMI The data of , In the equipment 70% The above is the wafer manufacturing equipment , Take an investment scale of 15 Take a $100 million wafer factory as an example , fabs 70% The investment is used to purchase equipment （ about 10 Billion dollars ）. Wafer manufacturing equipment , lithography 、 Etcher and film deposition equipment are the core equipment , Accounting for about... Of the wafer manufacturing process respectively 30%、25% and 25%.

In the lithography equipment market , Asmai, a Dutch company （ASML） Have an absolute advantage , High market share 73.5%, nikon 、 Canon and others have a small share . also ASML At present, it is the only one that can provide EUV The manufacturer of the lithography machine ; In the etching equipment market , Mainly by Fanlin Group 、 Tokyo electronics and applied materials are three times the world ; In the film deposition equipment market , It belongs to the traditional advantageous field of Applied Materials , Market share exceeds 30%. Let's see in detail ：

1、 Applied Materials

Products using materials mainly cover film deposition （CVD、PVD etc. ）、 Ion implantation 、 Etching 、 Rapid heat treatment 、 Chemical mechanical leveling （CMP）、 Measurement and inspection equipment .

according to The Information Network The report ,2018 The annual share of Applied Materials in the deposition field is 38%. In addition, there are data showing , In the world PVD(Physical Vapor Deposition) Equipment market , Applied materials have nearly 55% Share , In the world CVD(ChemicalVaporDeposition) The market share of equipment has also reached nearly 30%; stay CMP market , The share of applied materials is as high as 70％.

In the field of etching equipment , Applied materials also have a large market share . At present, plasma etching technology mainly consists of ICP、TCP、CCP Three types of , The effect is very similar ,ICP Developed from applied materials ,TCP Developed by ram ,CCP It is common in the etching equipment of Tokyo Electronics . In effect ,TCP、ICP The adjustability of plasma density and energy is better than CCP, Of the three materials currently used ICP Technology is used more , Become the development direction of the new generation of etching machine .

From the perspective of customer composition of Applied Materials , Its biggest customer is Samsung Electronics 、 TSMC 、 MgO Technology 、 Intel , And in recent years, it has reached 11% above . And according to the financial report ,2018 The operating income of Applied Materials in fiscal year was 172.53 Billion dollars , In other words, these customers contribute more than... Revenue every year 17 Billion dollars .

△2008～2018 The main customers of Applied Materials in （ picture source ： Liding industry research ）

2、 Pan forest group

Pan forest group is also known as Lam research , Its products mainly include etching equipment 、 Thin film deposition （Deposition—CVD/ECD/ALD） Equipment and photoresist removal and cleaning （Strip & Clean）、 Copper plating and other equipment . Sales of etching equipment （2017 year ） Some of the world 45% Market share , World first , Among them, conductor etching accounts for about the whole world 50% Above market share , World first ; Media etching accounts for about 20% Above market share , Second in the world ;CVD About% of the global market 20% About market share , The world's third .

Fanlin group has many cutting-edge technologies , It can provide a variety of cutting-edge products , Used in film deposition equipment ALD Technology is the most advanced technology at present , among ,ALTUS MaxE The series adopts the industry's first low fluorine tungsten （LFW）ALD process , With the traditional CVD Compared with tungsten filling ,ALTUS Max E The process of series products can reduce the detected fluorine 100 times 、 Internal stress reduction 10 times 、 The film resistivity decreases 30%, This technology has continuously led the industry 15 year , It is regarded as the industry benchmark of tungsten atomic layer deposition .

In the etching equipment , Fanlin group has mastered the most advanced silicon etching technology at present ALE technology , This technology can realize directional etching or isotropic peer etching , Achieved the highest selection ratio in the industry , Atomic level change control can be achieved , According to its experts ALE It is to enable some integrated process steps to 7nm and 5nm The only way to etch .

In terms of revenue sources , According to pan forest group 2018 The financial report of , The proportion of revenue from Korean manufacturers is as high as 34.6%, The second is the proportion of Japan 17%, Chinese mainland share 16.11%, Proportion of Taiwan 12.62%.

3、 Kelei

Kelei company is mainly semiconductor 、 data storage 、LED And other related nano electronics industry to provide solutions for process control and yield management . Since its establishment, Kelei has been deeply engaged in the semiconductor front channel detection equipment industry , At present, its product categories have covered all kinds of front optical processing links 、 Electron beam quantity measuring equipment . With its testing products, it is efficient 、 Precise performance characteristics , Kelei has an absolute leading position in the field of semiconductor detection and measurement equipment . Samsung Electronics 、 TSMC 、Intel、 SMIC is its customer .

The major enterprises in the field of semiconductor front-end detection equipment in the world are Kelei 、 Applied Materials 、 Japan Hitachi 、Nano、Nova wait . according to 2018 year SEMI data , The proportion of Kelei is as high as 52%、 To be the number one in the industry , It can be called the king in the field of semiconductor testing equipment , The second is the proportion of Applied Materials 12%, The total market share of these two American manufacturers reached 64%.

In terms of specific products , Kelei has a wide range of products , Including defect detection 、Overlay、CD Measurement , Film thickness, etc , The applied materials are mainly defect detection and recheck 、CD Measurement, etc , Hitachi is mainly CD-SEM Measurement 、 Defect detection, etc .

4、 Terida

Tereda is mainly aimed at semiconductors 、 Electronic system 、 Provide advanced testing solutions in wireless equipment and other fields , It can ensure that the product operates according to the design standard . It mainly covers semiconductor back-end test equipment . according to Gartner Data show that , In the global semiconductor back-end automated test equipment market ,1994 Years of , Thereda occupied close 50% The market of , To 2009 year , Its share has been further increased to 57% about .

From the customer structure of thalida , In recent years , A single customer once created that year 10% Customers with above revenue include apple 、 TSMC, etc . According to the annual report of thalida ,2016-2017 In, the company's revenue from TSMC accounted for 12%~13%. And consider direct procurement 、 As well as indirect procurement through OEM and seal testing factory , stay 2014-2016 Nian Mou OEM The proportion of customer revenue in total revenue of thalida has reached 22%、23%、25%, This includes TSMC 、JA Mitsui Leasing Sales of the company . In the past two years , The demand from Huawei is growing rapidly , According to thereda 2019 Annual report ,2017-2019 In, the company's sales revenue from Huawei （ Including direct procurement , And through the OEM 、 Purchase by the sealing and testing factory ） The percentages of are respectively 1%、4%、11%. Terida 2019 Annual income 22.95 Billion dollars , From this calculation 2019 In, the company's sales revenue from Huawei reached 2.52 Billion dollars .

It is not difficult to see from the above introduction to the four major semiconductor equipment manufacturers in the United States , In the field of semiconductor equipment , These four American manufacturers have high market shares in their respective fields , TSMC 、 Samsung and other wafer foundries are also their main customers .

Of course , It doesn't mean , It is completely impossible for a wafer factory to set up a semiconductor production line without American equipment , After all, in the key field of lithography , Mainly from the Netherlands ASML And Nikon and Canon from Japan , And among the top 15 semiconductor equipment manufacturers , Japanese enterprises also occupy 8 Many families .

however , If you want to build a completely American equipment , And can produce 10/7/5nm Semiconductor equipment production line with advanced process technology , But it is extremely difficult . Applied Materials 、 Pan forest group 、 Kelei, the three American semiconductor equipment manufacturers, has been able to occupy the position of the top five equipment manufacturers in the world for a long time , And by TSMC 、 Samsung and other wafer factories widely adopt , It also relies on the technological leadership and stability of products .

This point , We can see from the equipment purchase order released by SMIC before . in order to 14nm Mass production of , In the past year , SMIC purchased from applied materials and Fanlin respectively 6.2 $and 6.01 Billion dollars of machinery and equipment . Why does SMIC not purchase Japanese 、 Domestic and other non American equipment ？ The answer is obvious , Applied materials and equipment of Fanlin group have more advantages , And this advantage is definitely not price .

Let's take a step back and see , Even if it's true as the rumors say , Samsung can really build an advanced manufacturing line without American equipment , Then it must contain Japanese equipment （ Among the top 15 semiconductor equipment manufacturers , Japan occupies 8 home ）. The Japanese government has always followed the lead of the United States . At a time when the US sanctions against Huawei continue to escalate , Japanese semiconductor equipment manufacturers may also have to take into account the attitude of the US government . After all, some components of the equipment of Japanese semiconductor equipment manufacturers are also supplied by the United States .

Take advanced manufacturing process as the most critical equipment —— For the lithography machine , At present, it is from the Netherlands ASML A big family , But the core component of its lithography machine —— The light source system is made in the United States CYMER Exclusive .

Some semiconductor equipment manufacturers also believe , Even though Samsung and TSMC have the ability to build advanced process production lines without American equipment , At this time, I dare not rush to accept the order of Huawei Hisilicon .

edit ： Smart core - Ranger sword