China's latest technological breakthroughs in homegrown deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines mark a significant milestone in the country's semiconductor manufacturing equipment sector, and will help reduce its reliance on chipmaking technology from foreign counterparts, enhancing the competitiveness of the domestic semiconductor industry, experts said.
Their comments came after the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that one of the DUV lithography machines, which operates at a wavelength of 193 nanometers with a resolution below 65 nm and an overlay accuracy below 8 nm, has been included in its guidance catalog for major technical equipment. However, the catalog did not specify which Chinese companies manufacture the DUV lithography machines.
China's first set of major technical equipment refers to equipment products that achieve important technological advancements and own intellectual property rights, but have yet to perform on the market, according to the ministry. These include complete equipment, core systems and key components.
The ministry urged local governments to strengthen policy coordination in areas like industries, finance and technology, in order to promote the innovative development and application of such equipment.
DUV lithography machines are used to manufacture certain types of semiconductor devices like memory chips, which go into everything from laptops to smartphones. While newer technologies like extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines are used to produce the most advanced chips.
Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Information Consumption Alliance, a telecommunications industry association in China, said the latest achievements in the country's key chipmaking equipment indicate that Chinese chip manufacturers could use relatively advanced domestically made semiconductor machinery, which is conducive to improving the manufacturing level and ensuring the supply of homegrown chips.
He noted that the promotion and application of homemade DUV lithography machines are of vital importance in mitigating the negative effects of Western countries' sanctions on critical technologies, and enhancing the independent innovation capability of China's semiconductor industry.
"As homegrown lithography systems continue to mature and the applications expand gradually, it is expected that more cutting-edge chip manufacturing technologies and equipment will emerge, further raising the country's self-sufficiency rate in chipmaking and moving the semiconductor manufacturing sector toward higher-end production," Xiang said.
The major technological breakthroughs in domestic lithography machines came after the Dutch government announced earlier in September that it will further expand export restrictions on advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment, bringing the licensing requirements of chipmaking equipment company ASML's machines under its purview.
Li Xianjun, an associate researcher at the Institute of Industrial Economics, which is part of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the tightened export controls will seriously threaten the stability of global semiconductor industrial and supply chains and impede international technological cooperation, given China's growing presence in semiconductor manufacturing.
He emphasized that the recent remarkable progress in producing lithography equipment will bring about new business opportunities for Chinese semiconductor companies, and further motivate them to pool more resources into technological innovation amid increasingly intensified competition in the global semiconductor sector.
As the world's largest chip market, China's semiconductor industry has made achievements in recent years, said Roger Sheng, vice-president of research at market research company Gartner.
Data from the China Semiconductor Industry Association showed that the sales revenue of China's integrated circuit industry reached 559.7 billion yuan ($78.9 billion) in the first half of this year, up 16.9 percent year-on-year.
However, there is still a technical gap between Chinese chipmakers and their foreign peers, especially in cutting-edge semiconductor making equipment and fundamental chip materials, Sheng said, adding that "some advanced chip packaging and testing devices are dependent on imports".
He said more efforts are needed to step up policy support and encourage domestic companies in the upstream and downstream of the chip industrial chain to strengthen cooperation and increase investment in research and development, in order to master critical technologies in the sprawling semiconductor sector.