The chip industry is divided into two fields: hardware and software, among which chip foundry represented by lithography machines as the core belongs to the hardware field. EDA technology responsible for logic chip design and integrated circuit orchestration belongs to the software field. Just like the importance of lithography machines to chip manufacturing, EDA design is very important for the early development of integrated chip technology.
The old rules are straightforward. On August 31, 2021, the latest news from foreign media: Domestic EDA giant "Xinhe Semiconductor" joined hands with the world's largest American technology giant "Xionps Technology", which has released the "3D IC Advanced Packaging Design Analysis Full Process" EDA platform. This is the world's first EDA platform based on "3D IC multi-chip system design and analysis technology".
What impact will the 3D IC multi-chip system design platform launched by Xinhe Semiconductor have on my country's semiconductor industry? First of all, we need to understand what EDA is, and the superiority and advancedness of 3D IC multi-chip system design technology.
Simply put, EDA technology is a data model and concept that integrates the application of electronic technology, computer technology, information processing and a variety of new intelligent technologies, and uses computers to automatically design electronic information products. That is, the aforementioned logic chip design, integrated circuit wiring structure and other chip preliminary work are all completed through EDA tools.
We know that lithography machines are the weak point of my country's chip foundry industry. Similarly, EDA complex engineering technology is also a technical shortcoming that plagues my country's chip industry development. At present, my country's EDA market has become more mature, and under the guidance and encouragement of the country, EDA technology is gradually becoming popular. But most Chinese engineers are targeting industries such as PCB plate making and small ASICs that can make profits in a short period of time. Less than 11% of researchers engaged in complex process chip design.
The lack of competitiveness in high-end and sophisticated fields can easily lead to us being "bottled" by American technology in the EDA field. What's more, it is against the backdrop of the United States' high-strength sanctions and suppression of top domestic semiconductor manufacturers. The 3D IC multi-chip system design EDA platform launched by Xinhe Semiconductor has greatly alleviated the pressure we have in the field of complex EDA technology design.
It is understood that the "3D IC multi-chip system design EDA platform" launched by Xinhe Semiconductor uses three-dimensional stacking to integrate chips of different process processes and properties into one package. Broadly speaking, chips designed through 3D IC EDA platform technology have the advantages of high performance, low power consumption, wide effective contact area of logic chips and low cost.
From a narrow perspective, the 3D IC multi-chip system design EDA platform can promote the development of multiple chip integration fields such as 5G communication, high-performance computer groups, artificial intelligence and automotive electronics in my country. It can provide higher-level integration technology and more memory access to the integrated circuit field in my country.
Here I will briefly introduce the technical principles of the EDA platform for 3D IC multi-chip system design. The 3D IC EDA platform launched by Xinhe Semiconductor combines Synopsy's 3DIC Compiler with Xinhe's 2.5D 3DIC advanced packaging analysis solution. The seamless combination of Metis and 3DIC Compiler can realize the chip interconnection of more than 100,000 data channels. Simply put, engineers can achieve a trade-off between speed and accuracy through 3D ICs and shorten the design time on this basis.
Of course, there is no perfect thing in the world. Compared with traditional EDA technology that has entered the mature stage, the 3D IC multi-chip system design EDA platform lacks mature solutions for design analysis problems. This increases the difficulty of future popularization of 3D IC EDA platforms. However, combined with the weakening of the force of silicon-based semiconductor chips by Moore's law, the traditional technology of lateral crystal sorting is limited. The EDA platform for 3D IC multi-chip system design will have great potential to replace traditional EDA technology and become an emerging technology.
It is worth mentioning that the vertical transistor structure that combines Hunan University's ice-breaking successful and adopting 3D IC EDA technology can improve the performance of silicon crystal chips to a certain extent, that is, integrated chips under the same process. The combination of 3D IC EDA technology and vertical transistor structure may achieve performance comparable to process chips below 7 nanometers and below 7 nanometers while avoiding EUV lithography machines.
Of course, this is just a feasibility theory. If costs, time efficiency, fault tolerance and other issues are taken into account, it is still very difficult to prepare high-precision chips in this way. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and the road is taken step by step. The achievements we have made in the semiconductor field also mean that although core semiconductor projects are difficult, they are not irrefutable. I wish the domestic semiconductor industry to overcome the "bottleneck" problem of core technology as soon as possible and stand out in the semiconductor field.
What do you want to say about the "3D IC multi-chip system design EDA platform" launched by Xinhe Semiconductor? Based on the current development status of my country's semiconductor industry, how far do you think we are still away from achieving the goal of self-sufficiency of high-precision chips?
