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SMIC's third-gen 7nm node shows smaller metal pitch than Intel 18A, higher transistor density than TSMC N6 without EUV

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tomshardware.com 2026-07-21 Anton Shilov

SMIC's N+3 process technology can achieve transistor density comparable to TSMC's N6 without using EUV lithography, but it fails to deliver performance or efficiency of modern production nodes.

SMIC TSMC Intel Semiconductor Process 7nm Technology Metal Pitch Transistor Density EUV Lithography

SMIC's third-gen 7nm node shows smaller metal pitch than Intel 18A, higher transistor density than TSMC N6 without EUV — analysis of N+3 shows significant advancement for Chinese semi manufacturing - Tom's Hardware

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www.tomshardware.com 2026-07-21 Tom's Hardware

SMIC narrows Intel's metal pitch gap, but Kirin 9030 teardown shows China's chip limits remain

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digitimes.com 2026-06-18

A teardown of Huawei's latest Mate 80 Pro Max smartphone has put China's semiconductor progress back under scrutiny, after analysis showed the HiSilicon Kirin 9030 processor was made on SMIC's third-generation 7nm-class N+3 process with a local metal pitch narrower than that of Intel's 18A chip used in Panther Lake.

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

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tomshardware.com 2026-06-16 Luke James

SemiAnalysis has published the first teardown from its new in-house lab, focusing on the minimum local metal pitch on SMIC’s third-gen 7nm at 32.5nm.

SMIC Huawei Kirin 9030 Semiconductor Process 7nm Node Metal Pitch Intel 18A Chip Teardown

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