Founded in 2021, Chinese company SiCarrier has already appeared in the news more than once, including in the context of developing equipment for the production of 5-nm chips. In practice, the successes of this Huawei Technologies satellite are limited to the release of equipment for the production of 28-nm chips, but Chinese customers will also be happy with such achievements in the field of import substitution.
Image source: Tokyo Electron
As Nikkei Asian Review notes, citing informed sources, SiCarrier Technologies, a company supported by the government of Huawei’s home city of Shenzhen, is trying to recreate the equipment needed to produce chips on its own, looking at products from market leaders such as ASML, Applied Materials, and Lam Research as examples. Huawei’s close partner is faced with the task of import substitution for a whole range of equipment used in the production of semiconductor components. This includes lithographic systems, control and measuring machines, equipment for etching silicon wafers, and various solutions for applying coatings using the deposition method.
Huawei’s growing army of experts is reportedly actively helping SiCarrier achieve its goals. In addition, the company itself has hired a decent number of specialists with experience in competing companies in recent years. Some projects are limited to the involvement of hundreds of specialists, while others require the collaboration of several thousand people. SiCarrier is expected to present some samples of its advanced equipment at the SEMICON China exhibition, which will take place this week.