China Begins Mass Production of Home-Grown Immersion DUV Chipmaking Tools
China begins producing advanced chipmaking deep-ultraviolet lithography machines
Shanghai Aishengna Electronic Technology Group has started mass producing domestically developed immersion deep-ultraviolet lithography machines. This move supports Beijing's semiconductor self-sufficiency goals and offers a fallback if Western export controls tighten. While the new tools require further testing and lag behind ASML's models, they aim to provide Chinese chipmakers like SMIC with an alternative equipment source.
Producing a handful of immersion DUV tools is not the same as producing tools that can be used for high-volume manufacturing, where yield, overlay, throughput and reliability over thousands of wafer runs are what matter.
- rich_sasha
It doesn't make me upset that China seems able and determined to catch up on the litography technology - what else are they supposed to do?
What does make me upset is that Europe has the technology and seems unwilling or unable to get it's act together and make some chips. China seems to have managed this part too, only without access to the latest chip making technology!
- bobjordan
After living and working in China 10yrs and fundamentally experiencing the growth rate and culture, it's been a bit horrifying to watch the Western world consistently decide withholding tech from China and giving them no other option but develop their own tech, is a good idea. They are the ultimate long-term planners and I have no doubt the existing gaps will be relatively short lived before China closes them.
- try-working
All of this can be traced back to the 2018 blacklisting of ZTE, and the continued willful ignorance of China's capabilities, and of the history of industrialization and technological progress.
- AsyncBanana
China is still far behind modern lithography. It took ASML almost 2 decades to get from immersion DUV (and EUV prototypes) to commercial EUV machines.
- truthbe
Ultimately a win for the consumer, China does not tend to ban technology as a weapon