A fresh patent discovery has once again put the spotlight on Huawei’s long term chip ambitions, raising speculation about its possible move toward advanced 2nm processing technology.
Huawei has remained a major name in mobile chip design despite the impact of US sanctions. Its chip unit, HiSilicon, once designed the popular Kirin processors used in Huawei smartphones. In 2019, HiSilicon lost access to Taiwan based chip manufacturing, which sharply limited its ability to produce advanced processors.
In recent years, Huawei has made a comeback with homegrown chip production and revived the Kirin lineup with new 5G enabled smartphones. Even so, earlier reports suggested that the company was still limited to 7nm technology, which trails behind the 3nm and 2nm chips made by global foundries. Despite this, Huawei has managed to balance performance and power efficiency through tight hardware and software integration using its own HarmonyOS.
Now, a newly published patent has drawn attention. The patent, CN119301758A, titled “A metal integration method for manufacturing integrated devices,” was filed on June 8, 2022, and officially published on January 10, 2025, with the China National Intellectual Property Administration. It focuses on semiconductor interconnections and dielectrics.
The patent targets metal pitches below 21nm. While it does not directly confirm a 2nm process, its design supports the dense interconnects needed for both 3nm and 2nm class chips.
One key feature is a spacer based patterning method using five spacers to shape narrow metal lines in two steps. This allows precise metal gaps without depending on EUV lithography, which is costly and restricted.
The patent also describes a dual material metal process. It uses one metal such as ruthenium or copper first, followed by cobalt, which helps reduce placement errors below 5nm.
Another feature is FSAV, a self aligned via process that improves alignment by using selective etching through hard masks. Area selective deposition is also used to protect recessed metals during fabrication.
The method works with deep ultraviolet patterning to achieve very narrow pitches and can be applied to the middle of line and back end of line layers, including power rails. It also helps reduce capacitance and improve performance.
While this patent does not confirm immediate 2nm chip production, it clearly shows Huawei’s steady push toward advanced semiconductor manufacturing.
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