China's Semiconductor Ambition Still Alive

128-layer NAND flash product of YMTC

Chinese memory chip maker YMTC has initiated the mass production of 128-layer 3D NAND flash products for use in solid state drives. This shows China’s ambition in the semiconductor industry is still alive.

Taiwanese daily Digitimes announced the news on Aug. 2. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix initiated the manufacturing of the same products in August 2019 and the second quarter of last year, respectively.

According to industry sources, YMTC developed the technology in April last year and the mass production was delayed due to COVID-19 and the liquidity issue of its parent company Tsinghua Unigroup.

The company declared in late 2018 that it would skip 64-layer and 96-layer and start the mass production in late 2020. At that time, YMTC’s technological level was 32-layer and Samsung Electronics started the manufacturing of 32-layer back in 2014. In other words, the technological gap between South Korean and Chinese semiconductor companies is now a couple of years instead of three to four years.

The impact of the mass production is likely to be rather limited for the time being though. This is because the product yield and stability are yet to be confirmed and the demand for the products in China is still limited.

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