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| Huawei is building a chipset factory without American technology |
Huawei plans to build a private chip plant in Shanghai that will not use US technology so that safe materials can be guaranteed to work in its communications infrastructure, despite US sanctions.
According to the Financial Times, the facility is operated by the Shanghai Center for Research and Development (ICRD), a chip research company backed by the Shanghai city government.
The project is helping Huawei, which has no experience making chips, develop a long-term path to survival.
Industry experts state that the proposed domestic plant will become a potential new semiconductor source after increasing inventories of chips that Huawei has imported since last year.
The factory is initially testing inferior 45nm chips, the world's leading chip technology that has been in use for 15 years.
Huawei hopes to be able to produce the 28nm chipset by the end of next year. With such a plan, Huawei could make smart TVs and other IoT devices.
Next, Huawei plans to produce 20nm chips by the second half of 2022 so that most communication devices can be made on 5G networks. However, these businesses could continue and will be sanctioned by the United States.
The planned new production line for smartphones will not help, as the chips required for smartphones must be manufactured by nodes with more advanced technology.
The chips that Huawei needs to create mobile base stations are made using 14nm technology, but 28nm technology can also be used.
Huawei can compensate for software and system errors, while Chinese manufacturers can incur higher costs and downtime than their overseas competitors.
This project could boost China's ambition to end its dependence on foreign chip technology (especially the United States) and the United States hopes to slow down China's development as a powerhouse. Technology.
Huawei is investing in the domestic semiconductor industry, especially with smaller operators.
The company said in September, “We have strong chip design capabilities and are passionate about helping our trusted supply chain expand our chip manufacturing capabilities, equipment and materials.
Huawei plans to produce domestic manufacturing equipment only in China. However, analysts warn that achieving the target will be difficult in the coming years.
In addition to some used foreign tools available in the market, these facilities can also be operated with a range of equipment from various Chinese suppliers such as (AMEC) and (Naura).
Making chips in such an environment is less efficient and less expensive, but Huawei can afford it. Because the number of semiconductors required for base stations is much less than the number of semiconductors required for products like smartphones.