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SMIC N+2 (7nm-class, DUV)

China's leading-edge node built without EUV — the hard ceiling

SMIC's N+2 process delivers 7nm-class chips (used for Huawei Ascend and Kirin) using multi-patterned DUV rather than banned EUV, at low yield and high cost. It is the practical ceiling of China's domestic leading-edge logic; pushing to 5nm-class without EUV faces severe yield and economic limits, making this the central hardware chokepoint for Chinese AI silicon.

Method

DUV multi-patterning (no EUV)

Use

Ascend, Kirin

How it fits the stack

SMIC N+2 (7nm-class, DUV) with what it depends on (above) and what it feeds (below). The figure renders as a crawlable diagram and upgrades to an interactive 3D graph as it scrolls into view.

depends onusesSMIC N+2 (7nm-class,DUV)FabsHuawei Ascend(910B/910C)chokepointSMIC (SemiconductorManufacturingInternational Corp)
SMIC N+2 (7nm-class, DUV)Feeds ↓

SMIC N+2 (7nm-class, DUV) in the AI stack. SMIC N+2 (7nm-class, DUV) with its immediate upstream dependencies (top) and downstream dependents (bottom) in the AI value chain. Hover a node in 3D, or read the full relationships below.

Graph data (text) — 3 entities, 2 relationships
  • Huawei Ascend (910B/910C)depends onSMIC N+2 (7nm-class, DUV)
  • SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp)usesSMIC N+2 (7nm-class, DUV)