Huawei’s workaround for US chip curbs faces hurdles on road to self-reliance

Huawei Technologies has engineered a workaround to one of China’s most crippling chipmaking bottlenecks, but analysts warn that the nation’s path to semiconductor independence is still constrained by manufacturing challenges.

If true, the innovation marks a significant milestone for Huawei, which has been cut off from advanced semiconductors, leading lithography machines from Dutch supplier ASML, and cutting-edge electronic design automation (EDA) tools since 2019.

The company’s new Tau (τ) Scaling Law proposes a major shift in how chips are built. For decades, the industry advanced by physically shrinking transistors to pack more onto a silicon wafer. Huawei is betting instead on a concept called “time scaling”.

Rather than trying to make the hardware components smaller, the firm aims to boost performance by compressing the effective time constant (τ) – essentially speeding up how fast signals travel across devices, circuits and systems.

Under this new path, improvements in lithography tooling – the critical chokepoint in China’s semiconductor ambitions – are “not necessary”, according to He Tingbo, chair of Huawei Scientist Committee and president of the company’s semiconductor business department.