China
will launch its first 28-nanometer homegrown lithography machine at the
year-end, representing a great leapfrog for the nation's chip industry
after years of US-led suppression and containment.
According to
the Securities Daily, Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group (SMEE)
has been committed to developing a 28-nm immersion lithography machine,
and it's expected the first domestically produced SSA/800-10W
lithography machine will be delivered to the market by the end of 2023.
Founded
in 2002, SMEE is one of China's leading lithography machine makers and
accounts for about 80 percent of the domestic market, industry sources
said. Reuters described the company as China's only potential competitor
to the Netherlands' world-leading lithography machine maker ASML.
SMEE's
website noted that it has developed machines capable of manufacturing
chips at the 90-nm node standard - a technology that is suitable for
producing low-end chips.
He Rongming, vice chairman of SMEE, said
that in 2002 when Chinese experts went abroad for inspections, some
foreign engineers said: "Even if we gave you all the blueprints, you
might not be able to produce a lithography machine," according to the
Securities Daily report.
After returning to China, He led the
team in five years of research and development, and the team achieved a
major breakthrough in the crucial exposure process.
The
28-Nanometer achievement comes at a critical time when the US has
persuaded its allies, including Japan and the Netherlands, to join in
its effort to contain China's tech sector growth.
Anonymous
China patiently waited until it was confident it can produce its own higher-end DUV lithography machines then it imposes its semi-ban of rare earth exports.
ReplyDeleteExactly Anon 9.13.
ReplyDeleteIt is reported that 700 lithography machines bought by China from the ASML of the Netherlands earlier are expected to be bought back by ASML, because of the default by the Netherlands under the servicing agreements made between China and ASML, which has now been hijacked by the USA under the chips sanctions.
ASML realistically does not have the economic capability to buy them back, and is now stuck between a rock and a hard place. Each of those machines costs hundreds of millions. The solution is actually simple, if the Netherlands just ignore the USA sanctions and ASML can continue servicing those machines, but would the Netherlands have the courage to do that?
On the other hand, procrastrating the issue is not a solution for ASML, as China is fast developing its own Lithography machines, and pretty soon the China market will be completely lost to ASML and its survival is in question. China is the biggest customer of ASML and cannot be ignored if ASML is to survive. Would the Netherlands destroy its biggest asset just to please the USA? Hard to tell with those morons in power.
https://youtu.be/CscUNI_37hU
ReplyDeleteThis will be the game changer if the breakthrough by China's scientist can be translated to full-scale production of 1Nanometer chips without EUV
https://youtu.be/9ypdASk3rsk
ReplyDeleteChina: We WON'T Sell.
To India. The Cheater who cheated so many Chinese ans even UAssA companies.
To say that China is not capable of moving to more high end chip production or making more sophisticated lithograhy machines is just denying the inevitable. Anything made by men, can always be replicated or invented by other men. It is just a question of taking the time.
ReplyDeleteAs an example, why are they forcing Iran not to produce nuclear bombs? It is not because Iran does not have that capability. In fact countries like Brazil and even South Africa are perfectly capable of doing that as well.
The big question is if China succeeds in making high end lithography machines en masse, what is that going to do to ASML? And what if China could produce lithography machines as cheaply as they touted, like washing machines, what do you think will happen to those companies making lithography machines in Netherlands, Japan and South Korea and who will they be competing against? Do not say it will not and can never happen.
Decades ago, a copying machine was the size of a car, cost a bomb and very few companies could afford that. Rank Xerox was at its pinnacle together with IBM in that sector. Now, a printer cum copying machine costs less than S$200 and is the size of an attache case, or even smaller. Did people thought this was possible then?
Or did anyone foresee fifty years ago that China could ever rise to what it is today? Poverty strickened, fraught with natural calamities like floods, earthquakes and civil unrest, who could have bet on China becoming the second largest economy today. Cooks, laundrymen and farmers they were, completely brushed aside as irrelevant and ignored as a perennial basket case by the West. They only see the potential of China's cheap labour and invested in China, reaping all the benefits, fabricating all the lies, exporting all their pollution, consuming 20% of all the food produced in the world with only about 4% of the global population. That is just food alone, not to consider consumer products, all in exchange for pieces of toilet paper.
For now, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) and Hua Hong Semiconductor can purchase 28nm-capable tools from abroad, but a local scanner would be more cost-effective. Furthermore, its emergence would mark SMEE's ability to leapfrog several generations of scanners and go straight from a 90nm-capable to a 28nm-capable machine.
ReplyDeleteSMEE's reported breakthrough could be a significant step in developing self-reliant chip manufacturing, assuming that the company designed the device entirely in-house.