YMTC Seeks To Produce 3D NAND Drives With Chinese Tools

Chinese chip maker Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp (YMTC) is planning to use locally-sourced equipment to make advanced flash memory products after it was blacklisted by the US last year, industry sources say, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

Photo Insert: If it succeeds, the strategy would help China to become self-sufficient in semiconductors after the country was denied access to advanced chip-making tools as the US feared the technology would end up in the hands of the Chinese military.

If it succeeds, the strategy would help China to become self-sufficient in semiconductors after the country was denied access to advanced chip-making tools as the US feared the technology would end up in the hands of the Chinese military.

Last year, Wuhan-based YMTC had been on track to challenge memory chip leaders Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology with its flagship 232-layer X3-9070 3D NAND flash chip, but its prospects for mass production were thrown into doubt after US equipment suppliers KLA and Lam Research had halted sales and service to YMTC.

Industry sources in China's chip equipment industry, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, told SCMP that YMTC has doubled down on efforts to work with Chinese suppliers to help manufacture its Xtacking 3.0 architecture-based chips, and that progress has been made in a top-secret project code-named Wudangshan, after a sacred Taoist mountain in the company's home province of Hubei.

YMTC has a tradition of naming its chips after famous Chinese mountains.

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