【Domestic News】Gallium Oxide Regulated by the United States, Without Excessive Panic

  The new round of export restrictions from the United States involves design tools for chips of 3 nanometers and below, and gallium oxide and diamond substrates that have not been mass produced in the industry. At present, these do not seem to have a huge impact on the domestic industry immediately, but the goal of the United States is to lock China's chip technology at a level several generations away from advanced technology.

  As the above technologies also involve emerging industries such as artificial intelligence and new energy, the intention of the United States to restrict China's development is becoming increasingly obvious. Some veteran in the semiconductor industry believe that a comprehensive review is needed now, especially to solve the problem of the whole industrial chain of equipment and materials.

  Under the tense situation, a news spread rapidly on social networks that the United States had cut off the supply of EDA software, and for a while, there were many threats in the industry. However, Digital Intelligence Frontline learned that this statement is not accurate.

  The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the US Department of Commerce released a regulation on August 12^th , which introduced export control measures for four "emerging and basic technologies". The regulation will take effect on August 15^th . Three of the four technologies involve advanced semiconductors, including two materials and one tool, namely gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃) and diamond, and an ECAD software for developing integrated circuits with GAAFET structure. In addition to these three items, the other is the pressurized combustion (PGC) technology of gas turbine engine.

In addition to software, materials are also targeted

  In the restriction list of the U.S. Department of Commerce, in addition to EDA software, there are also two kinds of semiconductor materials involved, one is gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃), the other is diamond substrate, both of which are ultra wide band gap semiconductor materials. Such materials are expected to work under more severe conditions, such as higher voltage or higher temperature.

  These materials are still in research and development without large-scale industrialization, and the technology is mainly concentrated in Japan and the United States. However, the chips made of these materials will be more suitable for new energy, power grid energy storage, communications and other industrial environments, and therefore become very sensitive and important.

  In the field of power grid, it is also desirable to utilize the advantages of gallium oxide such as high voltage and low cost. For example, last year, a sudden fault occurred in the power supply system of Texas in the United States, coupled with heavy snow weather, resulting in a large area of power failure. At that time, the concept of "micro grid" was mentioned, which means, when the grid fails, the micro grid can meet the normal power supply of nearby areas, and its energy comes from the energy storage and conversion of solar energy, wind energy, water energy, etc. The key switching devices required for conversion are currently made of gallium nitride, silicon carbide and other materials.

  But the production cost of these materials is very expensive, accounting for 40% to 60% cost of the switching devices, and it is difficult to reduce the cost. This makes it necessary to apply other materials. Gallium oxide is expected to realize devices with low cost, and research and development are also under way in the industry.

  "Because the United States has just introduced this policy, we still don't know to what extent and in what form it will be blocked. In general, it will have an impact on scientific research and industry," said the veteran.

  In view of this new export restriction policy from US, a senior industry practitioner told DI Frontline that it is urgent to settle down and comprehensively sort out the industry to find out the problem, mainly in equipment and materials, whether by process node, purpose or category .

  "If we can localize the whole industrial chain of 28nm equipment, including its core components, components and materials, it will be gradually realized in the future at 10nm and 7nm." The above-mentioned person said that the investment in these years is still somewhat scattered, sometimes it seems "hammer here and batter there".

  The above-mentioned person said that, including EDA tools, according to the report, there are some enterprises in the United States that use 90nm designed stacked chips and have basically achieved 7nm performance. However, there is still a need to make breakthroughs in the design tools of stacking in China. Stacking tools need to deal with the simulation of different device structures. If the parameter models of these devices are different, the tools are different and need to be integrated.

  Although this round of regulation from the United States does not seem to have a huge and substantial impact on the domestic industry at present, the scope of American repression is becoming wider, and the intention of restricting China's development is becoming more obvious. In the opinion of the above-mentioned person, China needs to keep cool, rely on huge market demand, consolidate the foundation and carry out high-end innovation at the same time.