Huawei’s Kirin 9020 Relies on SMIC’s 7nm, Faces Chipset Limits

Earlier this month, Huawei announced the Mate 70 series and confirmed what we already knew, which is that it launched the Mate 70 Pro and Pro+ the device with its latest chipset — the Kirin 9020. This chip is the successor to the Kirin 9010 found in the Pura 70 series. Initial leaks indicated that Huawei’s silicon is being manufactured on a 6nm process, but further analysis shows that SMIC, Huawei’s primary foundry partner, has not advanced beyond the 7nm process. So this means Huawei had to resort to a 12nm process node for the Kirin 9020.

Huawei Relies on SMIC’s 7nm Process for Kirin 9020, Facing Chipset Production Limits

The headline detailed that U.S. trade sanctions on Huawei represent the major barrier that would prevent Huawei from using more advanced processes that are available from companies such as TSMC or Samsung, with TechInsights continuing with a much deeper look at the topic. Huawei has been forced to opt for SMIC’s 7nm technology dubbed ‘N+2’. Although Huawei and SMIC managed to develop the 5nm node, it appears that SMIC is having difficulties achieving a commercial yield, which would render the Kirin 9020 prohibitively expensive if constructed using that process.”

It also points out that the Mate 70 Pro+ uses traditional packaging marks that are similar to the Kirin 9000S and Kirin 9010 from previous years, like Hi36C0, GFCV110, etc. To put it simply, the Kirin 9020 is manufactured on a 15% bigger die than its predecessor, allowing for a slightly higher cache, theoretically leading to higher performance.

Huawei is in a dark, cold place, with enough government support to keep SMIC going, but SMIC is still a long way from putting out more 7nm chips until 2026. For a few years to come, chipmakers like Apple and Qualcomm are likely to mass-produce 2nm SoCs while Huawei remains mired in 7nm technology. And to make matters worse for Huawei, the situation effectively represents a challenge to the very manner in which the industry operates, on which Huawei is struggling to keep up.

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