China provides homegrown chip lithography machines amid semiconductor self-sufficiency drive

The Chinese government is touting two domestically-made chip-making machines that it says have made significant progress as the country strives for technological self-sufficiency amid US sanctions.

Lithography machines, which print highly complex circuit designs on silicon wafers, “have made significant technological advances, hold intellectual property rights, but still have no results in the market,” according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), which done not name the companies behind the two cars.

One of the deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines operates at a wavelength of 193 nanometers (nm), with sub-65nm resolution and sub-8nm overlay accuracy, according to a new list of “major technology equipment” published a THOUSAND earlier. week. The other DUV machine has a wavelength of 248 nm, with a resolution of 110 nm and an overlap accuracy of 25 nm, according to the listing.

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The two machines are still far behind the most advanced options available on the market. One of the most advanced DUV machines from Dutch equipment manufacturer ASML Holding, for example, can operate at sub-38nm resolution with an overlap accuracy of 1.3nm.

DUVs also lag behind extreme ultraviolet (EUV) devices, which use light with a wavelength of just 13.5 nm—almost 14 times sharper than DUV’s 195 nm.

China has spent years pursuing technological self-sufficiency in semiconductors, but its progress in producing the lithography systems needed to reliably mass-produce advanced chips remains slow.

An engineer works on a deep ultraviolet lithography system at ASML in Veldhoven, the Netherlands, on June 16, 2023. Photo: Reuters alt=An engineer works on a deep ultraviolet lithography system at ASML in Veldhoven, the Netherlands, on June 16, 2023 . Photo: Reuters>

Almost all of the country’s lithography machines still come from ASML, which has already cut off access to its state-of-the-art EUV machines to Chinese customers and is facing increased pressure from the US to withhold DUV machines from Chinese customers.

State-owned Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group (SMEE), the country’s best hope for developing its own advanced lithography systems, lags far behind its global peers such as ASML. The company, which was added to the US trade blacklist in December 2022, would need advances in several technologies and supplier networks to overcome the restrictions, according to experts.

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But SMEE has made some progress despite the sanctions. Last March, the company filed a patent for “EUV radiation generators and lithography equipment,” according to corporate registry data published earlier this week.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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