Let’s start with an EDA update that is closely related to the so called “chip war” between China and the U.S. According to an article from South China Morning Post, Chinese EDA company Empyrean has ceded control to its largest state-owned shareholder, China Electronics Corporation (CEC). Empyrean’s board of directors granted CEC full control of the company after the EDA firm was put on a U.S. trade blacklist (the “Entity List”). So Chinese state-owned CEC, once a strategic investor, will reportedly consolidate the financial statements of Empyrean into its own and manage the EDA firm as a direct subsidiary.
Rapidus advancements: process, equipment, EDA collaborations
Recently established Japanese foundry Rapidus has announced several steps towards becoming operational with its 2-nanometer GAA process. Working in partnership, IBM and Rapidus have achieved the capability of building nanosheet gate-all-around transistors with multiple threshold voltages (or multi-Vt), which enable ultra-low threshold voltages for high-performance computing, and higher threshold voltages for low-power computing. The two companies believe Rapidus will be able to produce these chips before the end of this decade. Details of the challenges and solutions can be found here.
Additionally, Rapidus has received and installed an ASML’s EUV lithography equipment at its fab currently under construction in Chitose, Hokkaido, which will be used for the 2-nanometer gate-all-around (GAA) manufacturing. According to the company, this is the first time that an EUV lithography tool will be used for mass production in Japan.
