Japan wants to manufacture 2 nm chips from 2025, with the help of the United States

In the race for increasingly compact and powerful microcomponents, Japanese and American groups have just taken a new step, by joining forces, with the aim of producing, as soon as possible, and perhaps as early as 2025, 2 nm chips in Japan.

A new (old) dancer enters the dance floor. In the race to engrave ever more efficient electronic components, Japan has just come forward, slipping behind the giants of the sector that are South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States.

The fruit of economic and diplomatic work

According to the Japanese daily Nikkei, Japanese groups have joined forces with North American companies – none are identified – as part of a “bilateral partnership” with the United States. This new effort is undoubtedly the first manifestation of the joint statement by President Biden and Prime Minister Kishida from the end of last May. It reaffirmed the historical partnership between the two countries, their desire to collaborate and to defend their reciprocal economic and political interests. A way to defend American hegemony, and to remind the world that the American giant protects its allies in a region where China and Russia have expansionist interests.

R&D and production centers

According to Nikkei, companies from both countries will conduct research on 2nm chip design and work on their mass production. For the United States, it is a way to be less dependent on Taiwan, and its technological leader TSMC. It is also a first step to try to weigh more in the production of semiconductors – the United States accounted for only 10% of all chips produced in 2020, according to a report (PDF), published by the White House in 2021.

For Japan, this is an opportunity to get back into the race, to ensure a stable supply of semiconductors by producing them on its own territory, and to consolidate the interest of the United States in protecting its territory.

According to the Japanese daily, two paths are possible: either the actors of the two countries would establish a common company, or the Japanese groups would unite to form a kind of hub industrial. The Archipelago’s Ministry of Economy would partially finance this effort.

Joint research would start this summer, while a research and production center will be created between fiscal years 2025 and 2027. The 2nm etching process should be used in all cutting-edge products: from quantum computers, to data, through the most powerful devices such as the latest smartphones. By reducing power consumption and chip size, 2 nm can give a definite advantage to players who will have access to it.

But for Japan, and the United States, there is also a national security issue here, these new chips will also take place in certain military equipment, recalls Nikkei.

Taiwan: a nerve center with its flagship TSMC

TSMC is at the forefront of 2 nm, with an aggressive roadmap. The Taiwanese giant and world leader plans to start producing 3nm chips later this year, and the creation of the first factories capable of producing 2nm this year as well.
The United States is of course not helpless with two major trump cards up its sleeve. On the one hand, Intel, which since the arrival at its head of Pat Gelsinger is in a strong technological (and geopolitical) reconquest. On the other hand, IBM, historical colossus of computing and R&D. In May 2021, the American group, which no longer has its own production plant, but sells its technologies to partners, such as Samsung, for example, announced that it had engraved its first chip in 2 nm.

It is therefore clear what the United States can bring to the common pot in this joint effort that benefits both parties. Without forgetting, still on the American side, Applied Materials, a giant in the equipment industry for manufacturers of microprocessors and electronic chips.

Japan, on the other hand, has material makers for good-sized components, like Tokyo Electron (which once wanted to merge with Applied Materials, by the way), Sumco and Shin-Etsu Chemical. The opportunity to recall that the Japanese know-how in chemistry for semiconductors, in particular, is impressive.

This revamped alliance, like a renewal of vows in an old couple, could also help to smooth the supply of components which have been extremely tight since the start of the health crisis, even if the pandemic has only been an accelerator, which an indicator of the problem.

The stakes are therefore important and numerous. Even if the United States remains at the center of this web and the necessary investments will be colossal, it is a bit of technological multilateralism that is being put in place.

Source :

Nikkei