Source: Global Times

Japan's Nikkei Asia Review, July 16th article, original title: Can China Build Its Own ASML? In Beijing, engineers at China's top chip manufacturer, SMIC, are working day and night to expand the production of 14nm and even 7nm chips. For a company that has struggled for years under U.S. pressure, being able to manufacture such advanced chips is nothing short of a major breakthrough. But SMIC's mission is not limited to manufacturing chips; the company hopes to completely use domestically produced equipment to make them. This goal has been clearly written into China's economic roadmap - promoting independent control throughout the entire integrated circuit industry chain. Sources said that Chinese chip manufacturers are striving to achieve this goal.

Multiple interviews with industry executives show that SMIC and its Chinese peers have made significant progress in multiple frontiers, replacing foreign tools used in etching, inspection, deposition, and chemical polishing processes with local alternative equipment. However, Chinese companies face a daunting obstacle: lithography. This process is crucial for the final performance of chips, but lithography machines are very complex and expensive, and only three companies in the world - ASML from the Netherlands, Canon and Nikon from Japan - have been able to produce them. For China, this remains a gap that needs to be addressed on the road to achieving technological self-reliance and strength. The United States has implemented strict export controls aimed at limiting ASML's delivery of advanced lithography machines to China. These political tensions have made China, one of the key markets, a firm competitor of ASML, even though the path to success remains long. For example, Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (Group) Co., Ltd. has developed a lithography machine capable of producing 90nm chips. Huawei has also become a major supporter of China's chip manufacturing equipment industry, establishing research centers, hiring talent from global top chip companies, and supporting Shenzhen chip equipment manufacturer Xin Kai Lai in developing various chip manufacturing tools to reduce dependence on foreign suppliers.

Meanwhile, the little-known Shanghai Yuliangsheng Technology Co., Ltd. has received technical assistance and personnel support from several top Chinese research institutions, becoming a challenger in the field of lithography technology. According to insiders, the ultimate task of these companies is to develop domestically produced EUV lithography machines and establish an independent ecosystem not restricted by the United States. The central and local governments in China are also strongly supporting such actions.

The driving force behind R&D is another key factor for success, and ironically, it is Washington that has provided this motivation for China. U.S. export controls have created a golden age for China's semiconductor equipment suppliers, and now almost all of China's top chip manufacturers are trying to shift to using domestic equipment as much as possible. A senior executive of a Chinese chip equipment company said: "To be honest, the performance of most domestic equipment still cannot match leading international solutions." It is understood that some Chinese chip manufacturers have experienced a drop in output due to the use of domestic equipment, but this has not stopped them from continuing to experiment.

Megan Harris, a semiconductor expert who previously served in a senior position in the U.S. government, said that the U.S. view of China's capabilities in chip tool manufacturing is either naive or ignorant, "The worst case is that Chinese tool manufacturers not only become competitive domestically, but also globally. And this is coming, and once it starts, it will be hard to stop."

In fact, since 2019, the top five chip tool manufacturers in China have flourished amid heightened U.S.-China tensions. Now, in every chip manufacturing step except lithography, China has domestic companies that either already exist or challenge global leaders. Charles Shi, a U.S. semiconductor analyst, said: "China is clearly making efforts to develop indigenous lithography technology, which takes time." A senior executive of a Japanese chip tool supplier said: "The entire industry is closely watching the increasingly fierce competition from China... We know they are trying to replace us." (Author: CHENG TING-FANG, etc., translated by DING Ding)

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7527819897330565695/

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