Despite having to use chips a few generations behind other phone makers, the Mate 80 DS Ultimate could be a powerhouse.
Huawei usually releases a limited edition RS Ultimate variant of its flagship Mate phone during the fourth quarter. For example, later this year, we expect to see the Huawei Mate 80 RS Ultimate released. We expect the Mate 80 series to include many of the cutting-edge innovations that Huawei has been able to come up with during the year. One huge question is which application processor will be powering the phone.
With constant speculation that Huawei is going to source 5nm chips from China’s leading foundry SMIC, this has yet to come to fruition. Despite not being allowed to obtain the lithography equipment needed to build chips using a process node under 7nm, there has been talk of SMIC and Huawei resorting to multi-patterning techniques. The lithography equipment transfers circuitry patterns onto the silicon wafer which chips are built on.
Without the ability to etch extremely thin lines on the wafers, something that the banned lithography machines can do, SMIC runs a silicon wafer through the etching process at least four times with the proper alignment to capture the correct transistor density and features. If the wafer cannot be perfectly aligned each time the etching process begins, the chip will probably turn out defective.
