Original title: TSMC Q1 revenue growth of 6% year-on-year: mining customers turn to 7nm, EUV 7nm enhanced version of mass production next year
According to the micro-network news, TSMC today announced its fiscal first quarter financial report for fiscal year 2018 ending March 31. TSMC’s consolidated revenue for the first quarter was 248.079 billion yuan (NT$, the same below) (approximately US$8.458 billion). 233.914 billion yuan in the same period of last year increased by 6.1%; net profit was 89.785 billion yuan (about 30.61 billion US dollars), an increase of 2.5% from 87.629 billion yuan in the same period of last year. The wafer shipment converted to 12-inch wafers is 26800 tablets, an increase of 8.4% year-on-year.
Compared with the previous quarter, TSMC revenue fell 8.2%, net profit fell 9.6%, wafer shipments remained flat.
Looking ahead to Q2, affected by the continued weakness in the smartphone market, Q2 revenue will be reduced by 7% to 8%, and revenue is expected to be between 7.8 billion and 7.9 billion U.S. dollars. From 50.3% in Q1 to 47%~49%, operating margin slipped from 39% in Q1 to 35%~37%.
From the perspective of product application segmentation, communications-related applications accounted for 55% of revenue and 19% for quarterly quarter; industry and standard IC revenue accounted for 23%, quarterly decrease of 4%; computer-related application revenue accounted for 15%, quarterly Increased by 30%; Revenue from consumer electronics related applications accounted for 7%, quarterly increase by 9%.
From the perspective of process node division, 10nm wafer shipments accounted for 19% of total wafer revenue; 16/20nm wafers accounted for 22% of total wafer revenue; 28nm and above advanced wafers It accounted for 61% of the total wafer revenue. The 16/20nm and 28nm wafer revenues were basically the same as the previous quarter. The decline in revenue this quarter was mainly due to the sharp decline in 10nm wafers.
Looking at the combination, TSMC’s revenue decline this quarter was mainly due to the sharp decline in communication products using 10nm wafers. The TSMC’s general manager and co-chief executive Wei Zhejia said that this was due to the weak smartphone market since the end of last year, especially The demand for high-end models is not as expected, and there is also uncertainty in the mining requirements. This application is the main user of TSMC's advanced process wafers.
Affected by this, Wei Zhejia said that TSMC’s revenue in U.S. dollars this year will grow by about 10%, which is lower than the previously expected 10%~15%. This year, the overall semiconductor market without storage will grow by 5%, which is also lower than previously expected. 5%~7%. The overall foundry industry will grow by 8%, which is lower than the previous expected 9%~10%.
It is worth noting that on the 16th, after ZTE was sanctioned by the United States, an adverse impact on the supply chain was reported. Wei Zhejia said that this information was just received, so Q2 did not expect to take into account the impact of the ZTE incident. He added At present, TSMC is cautiously studying the follow-up impact of ZTE on the supply chain. However, the company has a wide customer base and its impact on TSMC Q2 is expected to be very limited.
Virtual currency has always been a topic of concern in the market recently, and its price trend has been fluctuating in recent days. Wei Zhejia pointed out that TSMC’s virtual currency customers have developed very well in the mining industry and they are seeing a transformation in the AI field. He revealed that virtual currency customers still have strong demand and are turning to 7nm.
Talking about 7-nanometer, Wei Zhejia said that it will push forward the advanced manufacturing process according to the original schedule, and it is expected that the 7-nanometer production will be quickly delivered in the second half of the year. The proportion of 7-nanometer revenue is expected to rise rapidly to about 20% in the fourth quarter. The 7-nanometer revenue accounted for about 10% of the total revenue. It is estimated that 50 customers will use 7-nanometer flow-sheets by the end of the year. In the first quarter, it accounted for 19% of the 10 nanometers, which will decrease to the single-digit percentage in the fourth quarter. This year's capital expenditure has also increased accordingly, reaching 11.5 billion to 12 billion U.S. dollars, mainly for expanding production capacity and prepayment of EUV equipment.
Co-CEO Liu Deyin added that the 7-nanometer enhanced version will be gradually introduced into EUV, and a small part of volume production will be carried out next year, and mass production will be realized by 2020. He emphasized that due to the progress of TSMC's advanced process technology and the improvement of yield, the original 28 Nano customers are increasingly adopting more advanced node processes to transfer to 10/7 nm.
In terms of TSMC's Nanjing plant, it is currently progressing smoothly. TSMC Chief Financial Officer He Limei said that the 16/12 nm process is progressing smoothly. It is expected to begin trial production in small batches in April. The first phase of monthly production capacity will be about 20,000, mainly for mainland customers. Previous media Reports that China will be the first customer of TSMC's Nanjing plant. (Proofreading/Fan Rong)
2. TSMC engineers steal 28 nanometers of information
Recently, TSMC’s seized Wu Xing’s engineer was arrested for stealing 28-nanometer process secrets. He intends to fly to mainland China after leaving the company and provide him with a mainland company to use it for investigation. The inspection agency will investigate the matter. Hsinchu’s prosecutors will April 18th. Wu Xing’s engineer filed a public prosecution for breach of business secret law and suspicion of breach of trust.
According to a report from the prosecution that the surnamed Wu surveyed the engineer, Wu Xing illegally restructured TSMC’s 28-nanometer key process-related documents during the TSMC project in September last year. He plans to take an ionization job from Taichung in December and take it to Wuxi Huarun Shanghua Technology. Intent to use illegally reproduced TSMC business secrets on the mainland.
The prosecution concluded that the engineer surnamed Wu was involved in the law on business secrets and intended to use the unauthorized remake, use and disclosure of the business secrets of others and suspects for breach of trust in the mainland, and prosecuted the engineer named Wu.
TSMC stated that it would not tolerate the use of improper methods to obtain technical secrets and will strictly protect the technical secrets.
According to a news report from the China Times, the prosecutor interrogated and decided to pay NT$100,000 to pay for the insurance. He considered that he had been diverted by the mainland and restricted his residence and restricted his access to the sea.
TSMC's 28nm process technology is regarded as one of its main technologies. The mainland technology companies have spared no effort to dig out Taiwan’s scientific and technological talents. With heavy investment, technology people are willing to take the risk. Last year, TSMC also had a surnamed Xu engineer, who produced a large number of 28 The nano process was captured by the company. The first instance was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months, and the suspended sentence was 4 years.
3. China's three major memory camps are expected to test production in the second half of the year
According to DRAMeXchange, DRAMeXchange reports that China's memory industry is currently investing in the Yangtze River to invest in the NAND Flash market. Hefei Changxin focuses on mobile memory, and is dedicated to niche memory integration. The main camp is dominated. Based on the current progress of the three manufacturers, the trial production time is expected to be in the second half of 2018. With the mass production of the three camps, the time may all fall in the first half of 2019, revealing that the 2019 will Became the first year of China's memory production.
According to DRAMeXchange, from the perspective of the current layout of the three major plants, the Hefei Changxin plant was completed and capped in June last year. It began to move into the testing machine in the third quarter of last year. Hefei Changxin's current progress is similar to Jinhua's integration. The production schedule will be in the third quarter of this year. Mass production will be tentatively scheduled for the first half of 2019. The time horizon will lag behind expectations. In addition, due to Hefei Changxin direct attack LPDDR4 8Gb, one of the most important products of the three major DRAM manufacturers. The likelihood of facing patent disputes is also relatively high. In order to avoid this situation, in addition to the active accumulation of patent rights, it may initially be locked in to sales in China.
In contrast, Jinhua integration focused on niche-type memory was announced in July 2016. The 12-inch plant was built in Jinjiang City, Fujian Province, with an investment of approximately US$5.3 billion. With the current progress, the trial production of niche-type memory is extended. From the third quarter of this year, the production schedule will also fall in the first half of next year.
In addition, from the perspective of the development process of Chinese manufacturers NAND Flash, at the end of December 2016, the national memory base led by Yangtze River Storage was formally grounded. The official expects that in three phases, a total of three 3D-NAND Flash plants will be established. The construction was completed in September last year. It is scheduled to be moved to the machine in the third quarter of 2018, and trial production will be carried out in the fourth quarter. The initial stage of film production will be no more than 10,000 pieces for the production of 32-layer 3D-NAND Flash products. After the maturity of 64-story technology, the second and third-stage production plans will be prepared according to the situation.
DRAMeXchange pointed out that observing China's memory manufacturers' R&D and output plans, 2019 will be the first year of production of China's memory industry, but also because the two DRAM plants are not expected to have large initial production scale and will not shake the global market in the short term. Existing pattern.
In the long term, as China's memory products mature gradually, it is expected that the existing plants of the two DRAM manufacturers will gradually become fully loaded between 2020 and 2021. Under the most optimistic projections, the two companies will collectively have about 250,000 monthly injections. The scale may start to affect the supply of the global DRAM market. On the other hand, the total capacity of the three plants in the Yangtze River Storage Project may reach as high as 300,000 pieces per month. It is not ruled out that after the completion of the 64-story product development of the The scale of the film, and then in the next three to five years will have a significant impact on the supply of NAND Flash.
4.ROHM builds new plant in Fukuoka and expands production capacity of SiC power devices
Semiconductor manufacturer ROHM decided to build a new plant at the Chihgo plant of ROHM Apollo Co., Ltd. (Fukuoka, Japan) to meet the increasing demand for SiC power devices.
The new plant is a three-story building on the ground with a total construction area of approximately 11,000 square meters. Detailed design is currently underway. Construction is expected to start in 2019 and completion will be completed in 2020.
Since ROHM began mass production of SiC power devices (SiC-SBD, SiC-MOSFET) in 2010, ROHM has led the industry in developing new technologies. It is the world's first mass production of full SiC power modules and trench structure SiC-MOSFETs. The semiconductor company. In terms of manufacturing, ROHM Group has also built an impressive vertical integration production system. It is committed to strengthening the large-wafer wafer process, and actively importing the latest equipment to increase production efficiency.
At present, the world is setting off an unprecedented wave of energy conservation. The industry is full of expectations for SiC power devices that can effectively improve energy efficiency. To meet the increasing market demand, ROHM decided to build a new factory in the Apollo Chikugo factory to increase production capacity.
In the future, ROHM Group will continue to grasp the market demand, while strengthening production capacity, while strictly implementing the multi-point production system, inventory management, equipment disaster prevention and other measures, is committed to stable supply to meet customer needs. CITIMES
5. Last year, the semiconductor packaging material market was 16.7 billion U.S. dollars, which will grow steadily in the future.
SEMI (International Semiconductor Industry Association), and TechSearch International today issued a report pointing out that the global semiconductor packaging material market in 2017 reached 16.7 billion US dollars. The future growth rate will stabilize and will maintain single-digit growth. The material market is expected to reach 2021. Will reach 17.8 billion U.S. dollars.
Cao Shilun, president of SEMI Taiwan, stated that the sales of traditional projects led by the growth of smart phones and personal computers were not as good as expected. The demand for semiconductor materials was reduced. However, driven by the mining demand for virtual currencies, the overall market scale was offset. degree.
However, the strong demand for flip chip packaging for virtual currency applications has brought a large number of orders to many suppliers, but such a good picture cannot be maintained for a long time.
The Global Semiconductor Packaging Materials Outlook shows that, despite the automotive electronics and high-performance computing areas, the continued increase in price pressure and material consumption continues to drive future growth in semiconductor material revenue. Stability, which will maintain single-digit growth, is expected to reach $17.8 billion in the material market in 2021. The material categories that have grown in single digits include leadframes, underfills, and copper wires.
Driven by the virtual currency boom, all 2017 revenues from laminate substrate vendors have increased significantly. However, the use of multi-chip module technology has increased, and the packaging trend has gradually become fan-out wafer-level packaging. Technology is the mainstream influence, the growth of flip-chip substrates will slow down, and the revenue growth of dielectric and electroplating chemical suppliers will be more robust.
6. These 'details' make China impossible to top-level lithography machines
In recent years, China's science and technology are running forward with enthusiasm, and gradually entered the running and running, leading the 'coexistence of three runs'. But while we are full of confidence, we should also be more sober and rational. Compared with the country, key technologies in many areas of China are subject to people's needs, and they must concentrate their efforts on research.
The real core technology depends on whether or not it can be achieved. How many gaps do we need to overcome? What are the gaps and where do we need to break through? This paper starts today, and opens up a 'core technology that needs to be overcome.' Conduct combing, interpretation, and review.
Fingernail-sized chips, tens of millions of wires, with untidy wires, require extremely precise cameras – lithography machines. The accuracy of the lithography machine determines the upper limit of the chip. High-precision lithography machines from ASML, Nikon and Canon The top three lithography machines are monopolized by ASML.
At the “Twelfth Five-Year” Science and Technology Achievement Exhibition, China’s best lithography machine produced by Shanghai Microelectronics Equipment Corporation (SMEE) was juxtaposed with China’s large aircraft, the Moon Cruiser. Its processing accuracy was 90 nm, equivalent to 2004. The Pentium Quad CPUs listed on the market have already achieved a dozen nanometers in foreign countries.
Ancestral grinding mirror technology
The lithography machine is similar to the camera. Its negative film is a silicon wafer coated with photosensitive adhesive. The circuit pattern is lithographed and microfilmed into the negative film to etch away part of the adhesive to expose the silicon surface for chemical processing. The chip is to be repeated. Ten times this process.
The lens located at the center of the lithography machine is composed of more than 20 pieces of large lenses in the bottom of the pan. The lenses are made of high-purity transparent material + high-quality polishing. The lens used in the SMEE lithography machine is tens of thousands of dollars.
The lens of ASML is the ZEISS technology base. The lens material is uniform and it takes several decades to hundreds of years of technology accumulation.
'The same lens, different workers to wear, smoothness difference of ten times.' SMEE general manager He Rongming said that he saw in Germany, polishing the lens workers, grandfather and grandchildren in the same company in three generations of the same position.
In addition, the lithography machine needs a small, but high power and stable light source. ASML's top lithography machine uses extremely short-wavelength extreme ultraviolet light, and the optical system is extremely complicated.
30,000 mechanical parts must be reliable
There are top lenses and light sources, with no extreme mechanical precision, and it is also a good idea. There are two worktables, one negative film and one film. They both need to be always synchronized with errors below 2 nanometers. The worktable moved from static to dynamic, and the acceleration was almost the same as that of the missile.
He Rongming said: 'Equivalent to the two large aircraft from take-off to landing, always go hand in hand. One knife on a plane, lettering on another plane's grain, can not be carved.'
Moreover, changes in temperature and humidity and air pressure will affect the focus. 'The internal temperature of the machine must be controlled at five-thousandths of a degree. There must be a proper cooling method and an accurate temperature sensor.' He Rongming said.
SMEE's best lithography machine, including 13 subsystems, 30,000 mechanical parts, and more than 200 sensors, each of which must be stable. Like the European Champions League final, anyone who loses play has to lose. Science and Technology Daily