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U.S. Government Indicts Chinese DRAM Maker JHICC on Industrial Espionage; Bans Exports To Firm
The U.S. Department of Commerce [DoC] this week banned U.S. exports to a China-based maker of DRAM. The DoC believes that Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Company (also known as Fujian or JHICC) not only uses technologies obtained from Micron, but also threatens the latter's long-term economic viability and therefore could also be involved in activities that are contrary to the U.S. national security interests.
In the meantime, the U.S. Department of Justice [DoJ] has also filed an indictment against JHICC, United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), and several individuals accusing them of corporate espionage and stealing IP from Micron. Between the two, the U.S. authorities essentially sided with claims that Chinese makers of memory have illegally obtained IP and technologies from DRAM makers from the U.S. and potentially other countries.
As a result of DoC actions against JHICC, all U.S.-based (and, actually, non-U.S.-based too) companies will require a special license for all exports, re-exports, and transfers of commodities, software and technology subject to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). DoC makes no secret that such license applications will be "reviewed with a presumption of denial", so it will be tremendously hard for JHICC to obtain practically everything, including Windows 7 licenses for manufacturing equipment and production tools themselves (ASML has a strong presence in the U.S., whereas Nikon Precision is based in California). Meanwhile, the whole situation is somewhat more complex.
Related: Tsinghua to Build $30 Billion DRAM/NAND Fabrication Plant in Nanjing, China
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday November 02 2018, @08:39PM (3 children)
Roffle Copters
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Saturday November 03 2018, @12:06AM (2 children)
Windows 7 may be a commodity/easily pirated, but the tooling also mentioned typically has one or two vendors world wide. Without being able to purchase new scanners, this fab will be relegated to obscurity as they struggle to buy obsolete used equipment.
(Score: 2) by EETech1 on Saturday November 03 2018, @07:13AM (1 child)
OTOH they are really good at copying.
They have a lot of people studying abroad.
They are not stupid.
Hopefully they aren't planning on making the next generation of Fab equipment themselves with the hope of putting the existing players out of business in that market too!
Don't sell us chips... We then make our own...
Don't sell us the tools to make better chips...
We will make that too!
Don't think we intimidate them.
Do you really think they will say "sorry 2025, if it weren't for the US government, we could have reached our goal of not having to rely on the rest of the world"
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday November 03 2018, @06:16PM
In the Summer of 1981 someone told me that US chips had gotten too small for the Soviets to reverse engineer, which had actually benefited the Soviets as having to design their own chips promoted their own chip design industry.
Back in I think it was the fifties, there was a rubber embargo against china. Now they have their own rubber tree forests.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]