According to Korea's Hankgyung, China’s largest memory company, CXMT, which is preparing to IPO in the coming weeks, is currently testing a pilot production line for bonded DRAM in Hefei (the heart of China's semiconductor industry), aiming to achieve high-performance DRAM without using advanced EUV lithography, which is currently monopolized by Dutch ASML and faces unprecedented export controls (although according to Reuters, China has already built a prototype EUV machine).
Bonded DRAM is a technology in which the memory cell array and the peripheral circuitry are fabricated on separate wafers and then bonded together, as explained here. This approach enables the production of ultra-high-density DRAM using only deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography with multi-patterning, eliminating the need for EUV tools.
Samsung Electronics is also developing its own bonded DRAM under the “B1b” project, while SK Hynix is pursuing a similar technology. However, Korean media warn that there are assessments suggesting CXMT may currently hold an edge over its Korean rivals in both the technology itself and the speed of development.
According to the Korean outlet, Chinese memory chipmakers CXMT (DRAM) and YMTC (NAND) - which just two years ago were nothing more than firms struggling to manufacture low-end chips and sufferi
