ASML CEO: China is 10-15 years behind in chip production

Chinese foundry SMIC, best in class DUV (deep ultraviolet) Even if they have more advanced equipment, EUV (extreme ultraviolet) Since it does not have the tools, it cannot produce the latest technology chips.

In an interview with NRC, Christophe Fouquet stated that the US ban on the export of EUV vehicles has indeed had an impact and that China is 10 to 15 years behind the West.

ASML has not shipped EUV vehicles to China due to the Wassenaar Arrangement, despite SMIC’s reported order for an EUV machine. Details on this remain unclear, but ASML did not deliver the machine to SMIC due to US sanctions.

However, ASML 5nm ve 7nm Able to produce chips using class process technologies Twinscan NXT:2000i It continued to ship advanced DUV lithography tools such as As a result, SMIC has been producing chips for Huawei using first- and second-generation 7nm processes with these tools for years.

It may take 10-15 years for China to produce its own EUV machine

Realizing that EUV tools will not come to China, Huawei and its partners are working on extreme ultraviolet lithography with the aim of building their own chipmaking tools and ecosystem. But this At best it will take 10-15 years It is estimated.

For reference, ASML and partners building the EUV ecosystem from basic studies to full commercial machines over 20 years It took a while. Given that many technologies developed in the early and mid-1990s are now well known, Chinese companies will not need to develop everything from scratch. However, the Chinese semiconductor industry Low-NA (numerical aperture) When the Western chip industry developed EUV tools High-NA EUV and even Hyper-NA It will have switched to EUV equipment.

But the real concern is not whether Chinese companies will develop their own EUV lithography tools after nearly 15 years, but within the next few years. Possibilities of ASML being able to copy mainstream DUV machines.

US also pushes for DUV systems

The American government is pressuring ASML to stop maintenance and repair of advanced DUV systems in China. However, the Dutch government has not accepted this request so far. ASML aims to keep control of its machines in China because Chinese companies undertake maintenance to keep chip factories running. risk of leaking sensitive information is available.

For now, Chinese companies are among ASML’s major customers, and the company makes billions of dollars selling DUV vehicles to SMIC, Hua Hong and YMTC. It will undoubtedly be a great loss for ASML if the Chinese develop their own equipment, but It is not expected that they will be able to develop a vehicle of this level in the near future.

Source

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/asml-ceo-says-china-is-10-to-15-years-behind-in-chipmaking-capabilities


https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2024/12/18/christophe-fouquet-ceo-asml-je-moest-eens-weten-hoeveel-fuck-ups-er-nodig-zijn-om-de-meest-complexe-machine-ter-wereld-te-maken-a4877089













Share via Email
This is titled mail it to your friend.
















This news our mobile application Download using
You can read it whenever you want (even offline):