A leading Chinese memory chip maker may have achieved another technological breakthrough amid tight US trade restrictions, according to third-party analysis of a company paper delivered to an international conference.
ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), China’s top dynamic random access memory (DRAM) developer, this week presented a paper to the 69th annual IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) in San Francisco, giving an indication of its design capabilities for gate-all-around (GAA) transistors – the most advanced transistor type for cutting-edge 3-nanometre grade chips.
While CXMT has not provided a sample product, evidence that the Chinese company has an understanding of next-generation memory chip production has grabbed the attention of industry analysts, as the design of such chips typically involves technologies that are subject to US export restrictions.
Frederick Chen, a memory chip expert at Winbond Electronics, a Taiwan-based company, said the evidence of progress by CXMT is “impressive”, as it shows that the Chinese company is not far away from state-of-the-art research and products.
“It’s significant because Samsung Electronics is trying to do the same,” Chen said.
In a statement to the South China Morning Post on Wednesday, CXMT said the paper “describes fundamental research related to DRAM structure and the feasibility of 4F2 design” and “it has nothing to do with CXMT’s current production processes”, suggesting that the design on paper is far from becoming a marketable product.
“Any accusation that CXMT is violating US sanctions or export controls is completely inaccurate,” the company’s export control experts said. “We firmly believe that the free flow of ideas that IEDM seeks to foster is essential for the industry’s innovation and development.”
CXMT said two weeks ago that it had produced China’s first lower power Double Data Rate 5 (LPDDR5) DRAM chip, narrowing its gap with leading players such as South Korea’s Samsung and SK Hynix.
China sees surge in chip-making equipment imports amid latest US export controls
China sees surge in chip-making equipment imports amid latest US export controls
Founded in 2016, CXMT represents China’s best hope to catch up with South Korean memory chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, and US-based Micron Technology, in the global DRAM market.
Dylan Patel, chief analyst at San Francisco-based semiconductor research firm SemiAnalysis, acknowledged the CXMT paper in a post on X, saying the company’s progress with the most advanced transistor architecture “breaks US sanctions”.
Patel highlighted an excerpt from the paper that states, “We have successfully fabricated the junction-less GAA [vertical channel transistor] … with a hexagonal capacitor to realise a compact … DRAM architecture.”
In August 2022, the US Commerce Department slapped export controls on four semiconductor-related technologies, including software specially designed for the development of integrated circuits (IC) with gate-all around transistor structure. These four technologies are also covered by the multilateral 1996 Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies – of which China is not a member.
Global memory semiconductor giant Samsung started developing GAAs in 2017 for application to the 3nm-class process, with mass production of the world’s first 3-nm GAA process in 2022, according to a Samsung tech blog published in June 2023.
The technology requires specialised EDA software, an area in which China lags behind global peers. Engineers require such software to design ICs, and the market is dominated by US-based firms Cadence Design Systems, Synopsis and Mentor Graphics.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that CXMT is delaying its initial public offering, citing people familiar with the situation, and will instead consider raising funds at a valuation of about 140 billion yuan (US$19.5 billion), becoming the latest Chinese company to call off a debut because of volatile market conditions.