14 nm and above chips account for the majority of the market needs, as in over 90%. In the past, due to limited domestic capacity, 14 and 28 nm above chips depend on foreign fabs in TW, SK etc. Now increasingly they're replaced by chips from domestic fabs after capacity are cranked up, especially after the US blockade. With 14 nm process matured, China's RD resources are now directed toward accelerating the 7 and 5 nm process.While 10-nm has often been taken as a benchmark for advanced processes, for China, mature processes above 14-nm can meet the majority of Chinese market demands, Xiang said.
Sub-7 nm chips such as 5, 3 nm OTOH is incurring higher and higher cost to manufacture than the benefits it reaps, meaning cost to benefit ratio is disproportional high. While 2nm is the hard, physical limit for FinFET.
