DRAM Godfather: TSMC can't cross the DRAM chip There is a significant difference between DRAM and DRAM

Gao Qiquan, chairman of Zhaojie Technology, known as the "godfather of DRAM" and former executive chairman of Yangtze River Storage, said that logic chips and DRAM are completely different technical fields. Even if TSMC has the world's most advanced wafer manufacturing capabilities, it does not mean that it has DRAM mass production competitiveness. He does not think TSMC will step into the DRAM market.

Gao Qi's full name. From the technical route, although logic chips and DRAM belong to semiconductor products, there are obvious differences in the design goals, device structure and manufacturing process of the two.

Logic chips pay more attention to the computing power, power consumption and performance of transistors. Continuous miniaturization of advanced processes is an important means to enhance their competitiveness. DRAM requires the integration of a large number of memory cells within a limited chip area, while taking into account storage density, read and write speed, power consumption, and data retention capabilities.

In particular, DRAM manufacturing involves a series of specialized technologies such as memory cell structure, materials, process integration, and capacitors. As the process continues to evolve, the miniaturization difficulty of memory cells continues to increase, and how to maintain charge storage capacity while reducing the area is always a core problem that DRAM manufacturers need to solve.

This also means that mastering the advanced logic process does not mean that it can be copied directly to the DRAM production line. Even with state-of-the-art fabs, sophisticated equipment, and a large R&D team, truly entering the DRAM market will require a re-gain of expertise, talent, and manufacturing experience.

Gao Qiquan also mentioned that TSMC actually had DRAM-related experience in the early years, but it did not continue to develop. This history shows to a certain extent that DRAM is not a market that logic wafer foundries want to enter. The technology accumulation behind the two businesses and the logic of industrial competition are not the same.

Earlier, it was reported that TSMC is evaluating advanced memory manufacturing plans and may consider laying out 3D DRAM according to customer needs. As AI chips are increasingly demanding storage capacity and bandwidth, traditional memory architectures are facing new challenges, and the industry is also exploring the use of vertically stacked memory cells to increase storage density per unit area.

TSMC's head of public relations said that the company has always focused on its core business, the application-specific integrated circuit foundry business, with the mission of becoming a reliable technology and production capacity provider for the global logic integrated circuit industry in the next few years.

Source: MyDrivers (Fast Technology). Content is presented with source attribution. Read the original report.