Chinese foundry SMIC now offers 14nm FinFET risk production

China's largest semiconductor foundry is now offering 14nm FinFET risk production. AnandTech report SMIC expects to ship 14nm FinFET products for "significant" revenue by the end of this year, but it's hard to imagine the firm shipping a lot of these chips this year as it has limited capacity. The interesting thing about this news is that it marks the first production of FinFET chips in China:

SMIC, the largest contract maker of semiconductors in China, announced this month that it would start commercial production of chips using its 14 nm FinFET manufacturing technology by the end of the year. This is the first FinFET manufacturing line in China, making it a notable development for a country that already houses a significant number of fabs, as the world's leading-edge manufacturers never installed FinFET technology in China for geopolitical and IP reasons. SMIC in turn seems to expect a rather rapid ramp of its 14 nm node, as it anticipates the new manufacturing line will meaningfully contribute to its revenue before the end of the year.

In the future, SMIC expects to offer 10nm and 7nm process technology. For the latter, it will use extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. SMIC ordered an EUV step-and-scan system from ASML, which was or will reportedly delivered this year.