NuAxiSemiconductor trade intelligence
Chinese fab SMIC's 7nm metal pitch beats Intel 18A but lags 38% on density, teardown finds — Huawei's sanctions-beating HiSilicon Kirin 9030 is the first subject of SemiAnalysis's new teardown lab
What happened
SemiAnalysis teardown of Huawei's Kirin 9030 reveals SMIC's N+3 process achieves a 32.5nm local metal pitch, slightly better than Intel's 18A shipping pitch, but trails by 38% in transistor density. The analysis highlights the use of DUV lithography and complex workarounds to reach this density.
Impact and signal
Low impactImpact score: 10/100
Affected components and suppliers
Kirin 9030
node_teardowndensitypitchN+3
Source and time
Source: Tom's Hardware · 6/16/2026 · View original source
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