China Surprises World with Revolutionary 4F² Technology
The emerging chipmaking giant China claims to have surpassed Samsung and SK Hynix with its revolutionary 4F² architecture, sending shockwaves through the stock market.
According to Ambassador Arjan's report, quoted by Zomit, CXMT CEO Chao Canyo announced during an industry conference in Shanghai that they have completed the development of a new exclusive architecture called 4F² and will send ultra-high density products for data center servers to the market before the end of this year.
This news immediately followed the emotional reaction of the capital market; Samsung shares fell 7.4% and SK Hynix fell 10% on the South Korean stock market, and Micron fell 4% on Wall Street.
What is 4F² architecture and why is it considered a big change?
The common and established standard of the semiconductor industry today is based on the 6F² design; A measure that determines the area of each memory cell based on a coefficient of the basic dimensions. For years, market leaders have been trying to dramatically increase transistor density by reducing this ratio to 4F² without the need for highly advanced UV lithography machinery.
To overcome the physical challenges, CXMT has chosen the method of vertical surrounding gate transistors to prevent electrical leakage and signal disturbances.
The key innovation in this achievement is the complete separation of the production process of storage cells from the peripheral logic circuits. Unlike conventional methods where both parts are made on the same silicon wafer, CXMT engineers have produced each part on separate wafers and then integrate them using hybrid bonding technology; An approach that improves storage capacity by more than 30% in the same space.
Obtaining a laboratory sample is always far from sustainable commercial production. Maintaining the integrity of the cells and the efficiency rate on an industrial scale will be the biggest hurdle for Chinese manufacturers. However, recent efforts are reminiscent of innovative solutions by companies such as Huawei to circumvent supply chain limitations; Companies that are redefining the rules of chip construction rather than following the conventional trend.
The Chinese company's share of the overall DRAM market shows a stunning improvement:
Market share growth from 4% to 10% within one year.
Simultaneously advancing the next generation LPDDR6 mobile memory production project following the footsteps of Korean competitors.
Consolidating the position as a central supplier in the artificial intelligence processing chain.
Although the high-bandwidth memories (HBM) that Nvidia's AI accelerators rely on are still dominated by competitors, China's commercialization of 4F² is a sign that the country is less dependent on advanced Western lithography and will fundamentally change the rules of competition in the semiconductor world.