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Does export law inhibit semiconductor recovery?
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Friday, November 8, 2002
The ailing U.S. semiconductor industry may be salivating over the prospect of huge opportunities in the Chinese markets, but the biggest impediments to accessing those markets may be the U.S. government.
While the industry worries about China creating a capacity bubble, China still has a long road to travel to become a technological superpower, and is more worried about reducing its foreign trade deficit than dominating the world.
The sale of advanced technology to China has been a concern of the U.S. government, and was one point of contention among others to China’s accession to the World Trade Organization. U.S. export laws make it difficult, and in some cases the laws prohibit export of advanced technology to China. This is obviously an impediment to the semiconductor industry, in particular for purveyors of equipment and process technology, to doing business in China, said George Koo, director of the Chinese services group within professional services firm Deloitte & Touche.
Koo was one of three speakers discussing business in China at Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International’s (SEMI) Silicon Valley Lunch Forum today in San Jose.
In spite of U.S. reluctance to export advanced technology to China, Europe and Japan have no such qualms. Even as the market for used, older generation equipment and technology blossoms in Japan, advanced technology is making its way there via these channels, albeit not as fast as it is being adopted elsewhere in the world.
"Today we are capable of producing 0.13-micron photomasks," said Samuel T. Wang, president of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.’s (SMIC) U.S. subsidiary. SMIC, China’s largest pure-play foundry, is qualifying its 0.13-micron process and expects to start producing chips with 0.13-micron features in volume by the end of Q1 next year.
Of the various fab projects it has in the works, SMIC expects to have a production volume 200mm fab with 0.35- to 0.13-micron technology capability coming on line next year, as well as a 300mm demonstration fab with 0.13-micron capability.
Granted, the bulk of capacity coming online in China in the near-term is older generation technology. But the obviously conclusion to be drawn, one that Koo hinted at, is that the United States is only hurting itself with its contentious Chinese export laws.
By: DocMemory
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