Experts from the Canadian TechInsights have repeatedly identified the technological capabilities of Chinese chip manufacturers, and in their new report, as Bloomberg notes, they spoke about YMTC’s ability to produce 162-layer 3D NAND memory chips using equipment of Chinese origin. This is noticeably less than that of 232-layer memory of the same brand produced using foreign equipment, but the very fact of progress of Chinese suppliers of equipment for these needs is important.
Image source: YMTC
According to the source, YMTC is releasing new memory using Xtacking 4.0 layout technology, and who the supplier of the specialized equipment is is not specified. The rollback in the number of layers in 3D NAND chips of new batches, according to experts, occurred due to a decrease in the yield of usable chips, since Chinese-made equipment cannot yet provide accuracy comparable to foreign ones. By early February, the US authorities included YMTC on the sanctions list, so it lost access to new foreign equipment for memory production.
Equipment suppliers for YMTC’s needs are Chinese companies AMEC, Naura Technology and Piotech. Considering that US sanctions began to take effect this year, and YMTC products achieved a 162-layer layout on Chinese equipment, then such progress can be considered significant. Representatives of YMTC commented on the Bloomberg publication with detachment, explaining that the company is constantly improving the quality of its products, and the change in the number of layers in new batches of memory is not determined by the parameters of any specific equipment.