SMIC veteran joins top memory chip maker in bid to strengthen research

A veteran of China’s top chip foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) has joined the country’s top memory chip maker, ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), to take charge of research and development, according to media reports in Taiwan.

Zhou Meisheng, formerly the executive vice-president of R&D at SMIC and a key aide to co-chief executive Liang Mong-song, will head up the R&D centre of the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip maker, according to a report by Taiwanese media outlet DigiTimes.

Zhou retired from SMIC in 2022 after a five-year tenure. Before joining SMIC, he worked as chief technology officer at the China arm of American chip giant Lam Research, and held jobs at Singaporean foundry Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing and industry giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

According to previous SMIC filings, Zhou, 66, has Singaporean citizenship. She graduated from Fudan University in Shanghai in 1985 and received her doctoral degree in chemistry from Princeton University in 1990.

Hefei-based CXMT did not immediately respond to a request for comment yesterday.

If the role at CXMT is confirmed, it should boost the memory chip maker’s efforts to make further breakthroughs. In December, CXMT presented a paper to an international conference that reflected its design capabilities for so-called gate-allaround transistors – the most advanced transistor type for cutting-edge 3-nanometre grade chips – that was described by third-party analysts as “impressive”.

CXMT said at the time that the paper “describes fundamental research related to DRAM structure and the feasibility of 4F2 design” and “it has nothing to do with CXMT’s current production processes”, suggesting that the paper designs were far away from becoming marketable products.

CXMT announced in November it had produced China’s first lower power Double Data Rate 5 (LPDDR5) DRAM chip, narrowing the gap with leading players such as South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

CXMT is subject to broad American export restrictions targeting China, but it is not explicitly blacklisted by the United States government. However, the Biden administration is weighing further sanctions that may see more Chinese tech companies, including CXMT, added to the Commerce Department’s Entity List, according to a Bloomberg report citing anonymous sources.

Founded in 2016, CXMT is seen by industry analysts as China’s best hope to catch up with memory chip giants Samsung and SK Hynix, and US-based Micron Technology, in the global DRAM market.