Latest news with #CentreNationaldelaRechercheScientifique
South China Morning Post
21-04-2025
- Science
- South China Morning Post
Chinese universities are dominating global research on chips, US report says
As the United States continues to tighten restrictions on chip exports to China in a bid to curb the country's access to advanced semiconductors, Chinese researchers have gone into overdrive. Advertisement In recent years, Chinese universities have been leading the world in research on chip design and fabrication. And they are producing much of the basic research that could influence next-generation semiconductor technology – and position China ahead of the pack. From 2018 to 2023, nine of the top 10 biggest producers of English-language research on chips were Chinese institutions, according to a report released in March by the Emerging Technology Observatory at Georgetown University in Washington. Eight Chinese universities appear in the top 10 list of the most highly cited articles – or the top 10 per cent with the most citations each year in that period. Only two institutions from other countries made the two lists: the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France ranks third for total articles published, and 10th for the most citations; and the National University of Singapore ranks ninth for top-cited research. China and the US are vying to take the lead in next-generation semiconductor technology. Photo: AFP No institutions from the United States – the second largest producer of research on chip design and fabrication – made the top 10 lists for total articles published or most-cited articles.
Asia Times
07-03-2025
- Business
- Asia Times
China 'mass produces' semiconductor-related papers
China has become the world's No.1 country in publishing semiconductor-related papers, more than the following three ranked countries combined, according to a report published by the Emerging Technology Observatory (ETO) at Georgetown University. The ETO report said that from 2018 to 2023, Chinese scholars published 160,852 academic articles, more than the US (71,688), India (39,709), Japan (30,401), and South Korea (28,345). Regarding the number of citations per article, the US achieved 17.6, compared with China's 14.8. All the top 10 research organisations were based in China, except France's Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, which ranked No.3. From 2018 to 2023, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) published 14,387 chip-related articles, followed by the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (7,849), the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (5,446), and the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (5,237). However, China only ranked fifth globally regarding the number of papers published by chip makers. Samsung published 1,940 articles from 2018 to 2023, followed by STMicroelectronics (1,070), Intel (951), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (TSMC, 611) and China Electronic Technology Group Corp (CETC, 594). In terms of the number of citations per article, Intel achieved 17.3, followed by Samsung (16.8), IBM (15.4), and Samsung (16.8). CETC ranked only 10th. The South China Morning Post (SCMP), owned by Alibaba's co-founder Jack Ma, reported on the ETO report with the headline 'Tech war: China leads US in quantity, quality of semiconductor research, report finds.' It referred to 'quantity' as Chinese researchers' high number of citations per article. Zachary Arnold, a lead analyst at the ETO, told Nature magazine that although the study's findings do not mean that China is currently leading the chip-making field, 'it's showing us where things are headed.' The ETO report added that if China develops its research work into commercial applications, the US might soon find it impossible to use export controls to retain its competitive advantage in high-performance microchip design and production. Chen Yunji, a co-founder of AI-chip design firm Cambricon, told Nature that China's ability to make high-end chips lags behind its chip design, partly due to US export controls. Meanwhile, the quality of some academic papers in China is in doubt due to the activities of 'paper mills,' which refer to businesses that produce fraudulent or low-quality manuscripts and sell authorship. On December 31 last year, China's Supreme People's Court issued guidance calling for a crackdown on 'paper mills.' It also called for lower courts to crack down on 'paper industry chains' and severely punish those who committed research fraud. In 2019, the Trump administration asked ASML, the world's largest chip equipment supplier in the Netherlands, to stop shipping extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines to China. EUV lithography can make 7nm chips in a single exposure and 2-3nm chips in multiple exposures. Since then, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) has tried making 7nm chips using deep-ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines and multiple exposure techniques. It successfully made Kirin 9000s chips for Huawei Technologies' Mate60 smartphones, which were launched in September 2023. At the beginning of 2024, the Dutch government stopped granting licenses for ASML to export its NXT:2000i and subsequent DUV immersion systems to China. 'China's scientific and technological innovation has more than once defied people's imagination,' Minister Wang Yi, member of the politburo of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and Foreign Minister, said in a press conference in Beijing on March 7. 'This journey has not been smooth. Be it missile technology, space science or chip making, unjustified external suppression has never stopped. But where there is a blockade, there is a breakthrough; where there is suppression, there is innovation.' Citing an ancient Chinese verse, 'No mountains can stop the surging flow of a mighty river,' Wang said blockade cannot stop China's technological advancement. He said science and technology should not be used to create an iron curtain but be shared by all; China is ready to share its technology with the Global South. He stressed that 'high fences and small yards,' a policy that forbids China from obtaining US high technology during the Biden era, could not suppress China's spirit of innovation. He said decoupling and disruption of supply chains will only lead to self-isolation. US President Donald Trump, who began his second term on January 20 this year, also thinks Biden's 'high fences and small yards' policy does not work. White House officials have recently met with Japanese and Dutch officials to discuss stopping Tokyo Electron and ASML from maintaining semiconductor gear at Chinese chip fabs. They said Japan and the Netherlands should ask their firms to match the limits the US has placed on its own companies, including Lam Research Corp, KLA Corp and Applied Materials Inc. China has been trying to make its lithography for a decade by pouring tens of billions of dollars into the semiconductor industry. However, the program failed to achieve the expected results due to corruption. In July 2022, a dozen top Chinese officials and executives of a national investment fund and related companies were arrested. China now focuses on chip design and packaging technologies, which do not rely on EUV lithography. The Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP), a think tank in South Korea, said in a recent survey that China has overtaken Korea in nearly every major area of semiconductor technology. The survey, which interviewed 39 industry experts, said China now leads in high-intensity and resistance-based memory technology, scoring 94.1% compared to Korea's 90.9%. The highest benchmark is 100%. Resistance-based memory, or resistive random access memory (ReRAM or RRAM), is a future technology suitable for deep learning computations. It will eventually replace traditional flash memory. KISTEP also found that Korea lags behind China in high-performance, low-power artificial intelligence (AI) chips, scoring 84.1% compared to China's 88.3%. It said the rise of China's chip technology is a wake-up call for Korea, which must accelerate its technological innovation with government and private-sector support. Last year, Huawei struggled to make enough Kirin 9100 chips for its new flagship smartphone, Mate70, due to SMIC's limited production capability of 7nm chips. A Henan-based IT columnist said China could use its 14nm chip processing and 3D packaging technology to make chips with performance equivalent to 3nm and 5nm chips. This would involve stacking up some mid-end chips to increase computing speed. Yong Jian is a contributor to the Asia Times. He is a Chinese journalist who specializes in Chinese technology, economy and politics. Read: Huawei's Mate70 to flex high-end chip self-sufficiency
The Guardian
05-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on Israel's aid blockade: pushing Palestinians toward catastrophe
Israel's decision to block aid to Gaza, as ceasefire talks falter, is a devastating blow to 2 million hungry, vulnerable civilians in the shattered territory. As the occupying power, Israel is legally bound to allow relief into Gaza under the Geneva convention. Denying it isn't just inhumane – it's a war crime. But Benjamin Netanyahu already faces an international criminal court arrest warrant for 'starvation as a method of warfare' and 'crimes against humanity'. Mr Netanyahu's ability to flout international law is thanks to Donald Trump, who remains firmly in his corner. Washington now appears to accept starvation as an Israeli bargaining chip to pressure Hamas into accepting a US-devised truce extension – one that secures hostage exchanges while ensuring Israeli forces remain in Gaza. Hamas, which sparked the war with its 2023 massacre of Israeli civilians, insists Israel honour its commitment to a second phase of Gaza ceasefire negotiations – ending the fighting and withdrawing troops. Palestinians in Gaza are on the brink. Food is running out, hospitals are unable to function and families scavenge for clean water. Any further aid restrictions will turn desperation into catastrophe. It would be far better for a negotiated peace to be worked out that would see the Palestinians stay to rebuild their lives and for the remaining Israeli hostages to return home. After 15 months of war, and having achieved many of its declared objectives, Israel is no closer to peace in Gaza. That view is echoed by Scott Atran of Paris's Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, who polled civilians in Gaza in January, shortly before the ceasefire came into effect. Prof Atran correctly argues that Israel lacks a political strategy for Palestine's future and is only fuelling Palestinian anger. From the outset, the Trump administration has pursued an aggressive, unilateral approach to Gaza, aligning firmly with Israeli interests while disregarding Palestinian concerns. According to Nabeel Khoury, a former US state department official, the Abraham accords – Mr Trump's flagship Middle East initiative – remain central to Washington's evolving strategy, one that envisions Israeli territorial consolidation and unchallenged regional dominance. Mr Khoury has noted the US's immediate priority is the wholesale removal of Palestinians from Gaza, followed, if conditions permit, by a gradual takeover of the West Bank. That vision coincides with the Washington visit of Israel's far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, a pro-annexationist who has warned Mr Netanyahu that he would collapse the government if Israeli troops withdrew from Gaza under a truce. An Arab-led plan for Gaza's post-war reconstruction – allowing its 2 million residents to remain – was rebuffed by the US and Israel. Yet it marked an important show of force: a pan-Arab coalition pushing back against the visible Netanyahu-Trump effort to erase Palestinian self-determination. In contrast, reports suggest the Trump administration is in direct talks with Hamas. If true, this would be a striking reversal of US policy. Engaging Hamas – once deemed untouchable – as a US negotiating partner might be pragmatic realism, an example of Trumpian transactional diplomacy or both. The UN estimated in 2019 that oil and natural gas resources in the occupied Palestinian territories could generate hundreds of billions of dollars for development. But Palestinian national aspirations are impossible under occupation.
Saudi Gazette
28-02-2025
- Politics
- Saudi Gazette
French researchers sentenced for throwing explosives at Russian consulate in Marseille
PARIS — Two researchers employed at France's main state research agency were handed an eight-month sentence on Thursday for throwing explosives at the Russian consulate in the southern French city of Marseille. The two scientists, who work at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, carried out their attack on Monday 24 February — the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The researchers threw three plastic bottles, which contained a homemade mixture, as well as a cocktail of nitrogen and other chemical substances at the gardens of the Russian consulate, reported Radio France. Of the three bottles that were thrown, two exploded and caused detonations. While there was no damage or injuries, the Russian consulate's avenue was cordoned off for several hours to allow bomb disposal experts to intervene. The researchers were arrested the same evening at a pro-Ukraine rally held outside the Marseille town hall. During their subsequent court hearing, they admitted to having taken liquid nitrogen with a temperature of -190C from their workplace laboratory. According to French broadcaster TF1, public prosecutor Olivier Redon said that "the facts were not dangerous", and that he believed the researchers exercised caution "on purpose" acting as "honest individuals". One of the researchers is a 59-year-old man who is married to a Ukrainian woman. TF1 reported that his father-in-law has been sleeping on the couple's sofa since Russia launched its full-scale invasion. While the researchers were handed eight-month prison sentences, the public prosecutor called for them to be able to serve them with electronic tags rather than in cells. The two are also banned from visiting the area surrounding the consulate and prohibited from carrying weapons for five years. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the incident had 'all the hallmarks of a terrorist attack'. — Euronews
Euronews
28-02-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
French researchers sentenced for throwing explosives at Russian consulate in Marseille
Two researchers employed at France's main state research agency were handed an eight-month sentence on Thursday for throwing explosives at the Russian consulate in the southern French city of Marseille. The two scientists, who work at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, carried out their attack on Monday 24 February — the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The researchers threw three plastic bottles, which contained a homemade mixture, as well as a cocktail of nitrogen and other chemical substances at the gardens of the Russian consulate, reported Radio France. Of the three bottles that were thrown, two exploded and caused detonations. While there was no damage or injuries, the Russian consulate's avenue was cordoned off for several hours to allow bomb disposal experts to intervene. The researchers were arrested the same evening at a pro-Ukraine rally held outside the Marseille town hall. During their subsequent court hearing, they admitted to having taken liquid nitrogen with a temperature of -190C from their workplace laboratory. According to French broadcaster TF1, public prosecutor Olivier Redon said that "the facts were not dangerous", and that he believed the researchers exercised caution "on purpose" acting as "honest individuals". One the researchers is a 59-year old man who is married to a Ukrainian woman. TF1 reported that his father-in-law has been sleeping on the couple's sofa since Russia launched its full-scale invasion. While the researchers were handed a eight-month prison sentences, the public prosecutor called for them to be able to serve them with electronic tags rather than in cells. The two are also banned from visiting the area surrounding the consulate and prohibited from carrying weapons for five years. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the incident had 'all the hallmarks of a terrorist attack'.
