Breakthroughs will help strengthen technological independence

China’s latest technological breakthroughs in domestic deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines represent a major milestone for China’s semiconductor manufacturing equipment sector and will help reduce reliance on foreign chip-making technologies, boosting the competitiveness of the country’s semiconductor industry, experts said.

Their comments came after the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said one of the DUV lithography machines, which operates at a wavelength of 193 nanometers with a resolution of less than 65 nm and a deposition accuracy of less than 8 nm, was included in the catalog of guidelines for major technical equipment. However, the catalog did not specify which Chinese companies manufacture DUV lithography machines.

China’s first set of core technical equipment refers to hardware products that have achieved important technological progress and have intellectual property rights but have not yet entered the market, according to the ministry. They include complete equipment, core systems and key components.

The ministry called on local authorities to strengthen policy coordination in areas such as industry, finance and technology to promote the innovative development and use of this type of equipment.

DUV lithography machines are used to make some types of semiconductor devices, such as memory chips that are used in everything from laptops to smartphones. While newer technologies, such as extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines, are used to produce the most advanced chips.

Xiang Ligang, general manager of Information Consumption Alliance, a Chinese telecommunications industry association, said recent developments in the country’s key chip manufacturing equipment indicate that Chinese chip makers could benefit from relatively advanced domestic semiconductor manufacturing machines, which would be conducive to raising the production level and ensuring the supply of domestic chips.

He noted that the promotion and application of home-made DUV lithography machines are crucial to mitigating the negative effects of Western sanctions on key technologies and enhancing the independent innovation capacity of China’s semiconductor industry.

“As domestic lithography systems continue to develop and applications gradually expand, more advanced IC manufacturing technologies and equipment are expected to emerge, further improving the country’s self-sufficiency rate in IC manufacturing and pushing the semiconductor manufacturing sector toward higher-end production,” Xiang said.

The major technological breakthroughs for the country’s lithography machines come after the Dutch government announced in September that it would further widen export restrictions on advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment, including licensing requirements for machines from integrated circuit manufacturing equipment company ASML.

Li Xianjun, an assistant professor at the Institute of Industrial Economics, part of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said tightened export controls would seriously threaten the stability of global supply chains and the semiconductor industry and hamper international technology cooperation, given China’s growing presence in the semiconductor manufacturing market.

He stressed that recent significant advances in lithography equipment production will create new business opportunities for Chinese semiconductor companies and further motivate them to invest more resources in technological innovation in the face of increasing competition in the global semiconductor sector.

China’s semiconductor industry, the world’s largest integrated circuit market, has made significant achievements in recent years, said Roger Sheng, research vice president at market research firm Gartner.

Data from the China Semiconductor Industry Association shows that sales revenue of China’s integrated circuit industry in the first half of this year was 559.7 billion yuan (78.9 billion US dollars), up 16.9 percent year-on-year.

However, there is still a technical gap between Chinese IC makers and their overseas counterparts, especially in the areas of cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing equipment and basic IC manufacturing materials, Sheng said, adding that “some advanced IC packaging and testing equipment is dependent on imports.”

He said greater efforts are needed to strengthen policy support and encourage domestic upstream and downstream companies in the integrated circuit industry chain to strengthen cooperation and increase research and development investment to master key technologies in the vast semiconductor sector.

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