Huawei doesn’t need ASML: paving the way to 1.4 nm chips

Huawei has launched a bold challenge to the global semiconductor market, claiming to be able to circumvent one of the industry’s tightest technical constraints: the dependence on extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machinery.

While giants like Intel, TSMC and Samsung Electronics base their most advanced production lines on the the complex equipment provided by the Dutch ASML, the Chinese company is taking an alternative path.

The company’s aim is to achieve, by 2031, a transistor density comparable to that of future fabrication processes at 1.4 nanometers. This is a formidable technical milestone pursued by the entire industry for the next generations of processors, which the Asian company intends to achieve by completely redesigning the internal architecture of its components.

Huawei targets 1.4 nm: ASML’s EUV machines are not needed

Due to the severe export restrictions imposed by the United States, Huawei does not have the ability to purchase ASML systems. Consequently, its engineers have focused on different construction methodologies.

He Tingbo, president of the company’s chip division, recently confirmed in Shanghai that the internally developed solution is not only feasible, but also economically sustainable from an economic standpoint.

Instead of fixating on the extreme miniaturization of individual components, the strategy focuses on stacking multiple layers of circuits on a single chip, aggressively optimizing the data flow between them.

This three-dimensional structure enables an increase in overall performance by maximizing structural efficiency, an orientation that reflects an emerging trend in an industry approaching the physical limits of silicon.

The LogicFolding framework and thermal challenges

One of the commercial expressions of this research is named LogicFolding, a design approach that will debut by the end of the year on Kirin processors intended for smartphones.

The same logic will be applied to chips developed for artificial intelligence, an area where data transfer speed is as fundamental as raw computing power. The company says it has refined these techniques over the course of 6 years of commercial isolation, having already mass-produced 381 chip models based on related concepts.

Despite progress, inevitable obstacles emerge. The dense stacking of circuits generates significant difficulties related to the thermal dissipation, as the heat trapped between the levels risks compromising the processor’s operational stability. Additionally, coordinating operations among the different logical layers requires extremely sophisticated management software.

Le implicazioni geopolitiche

Analysts are watching the developments emanating from Shenzhen very closely. Lian Jye Su, a researcher at the Omdia company, emphasizes how the path taken by Huawei represents a remarkable step, born out of the sheer necessity to overcome the barriers imposed on the supply chain.

However, the validity of these solutions on a very large scale, especially in critical environments like data centers, still requires thorough testing. Sources close to the development projects indicate that Chinese engineers have begun to record consistent and reliable results with this technology only in the past year.

If the roadmap to 2031 were to be followed, the global consequences would be massive. The creation of a production method independent of traditional suppliers could lower manufacturing costs and loosen the grip of the few key patent holders.

Current geopolitical tensions are proving to be a powerful accelerator for Asian research, pushing companies to explore unprecedented paths for building the devices of the future.