Nowadays, the rapid development of China's chip industry chain is obvious to all, and as a crucial semiconductor equipment in the chip manufacturing process, lithography machine has naturally become one of the focuses of the development of China's chip industry chain. In recent years, there has been good news about the technological breakthrough of domestic lithography machines, and just recently there was important news about domestic lithography machines, but this time it is not a breakthrough in technology, but the development of production capacity.
On June 25th, a news website in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province disclosed the good news about the domestic lithography machine, according to the current news, a domestic lithography machine manufacturing plant will be established in Shaoxing, the investment scale of this factory is as high as 5 billion yuan, and the annual production capacity of the lithography machine will reach 100 units after the completion of the factory.
Although judging from the current news, the lithography machine produced by this factory is not an advanced process lithography machine, mainly based on mature process. However, this actually reflects that the development of China's lithography machine industry is now changing from technological progress to capacity expansion, which is equivalent to the gradual implementation of the previous technology, which will truly solve the embarrassing problem of lack of lithography machines in China's chip industry chain.
It is worth noting that, judging from the information disclosed by this company, in fact, their lithography machine factory can not only produce lithography machines independently, but also customize and develop independently, and even include well-known lithography machine brands such as ASML, Nikon, and Canon. From this point of view, in fact, this company is mainly to repair and transform lithography machines, and it is redesigned and transformed on the basis of existing technologies abroad.
Although this model does not have much effect on the technological development of China's lithography machine, it can effectively solve the situation that China's chip industry chain lacks sufficient purchase channels for lithography machine equipment after the export control ban on lithography machines from the United States and the West takes effect.
What's more, judging from the previous news reported by the US media, ASML has admitted that it has installed a remote control backdoor in the shipped lithography equipment, which can remotely paralyze the lithography equipment that has been shipped at any time. Although this statement is mainly aimed at TSMC, it is enough to see from the subtext that if there is a need, the lithography machine purchased by Chinese companies may also become scrap metal.
If this company can modify and customize the lithography machine it has purchased, it also means that it may be possible to solve the remote control backdoor setting in the lithography machine. What's more, now that the United States is considering further tightening the scope of export controls on lithography machines, it is possible to restrict the provision of parts and maintenance services, and the company can also gain more maintenance technology in this kind of lithography machine modification and customization services.
However, if you look at the overall situation, in fact, this model is relatively limited in promoting the development of domestic lithography machine technology. On the one hand, limited by the limitations of technical patents, even if the company has figured out the lithography machine technology of ASML, Nikon and other manufacturers, it cannot produce lithography machines independently, and on the other hand, this model does not involve the research and development of core technologies, mainly in the technical development of lithography machine assembly.
Since the ban on U.S. chips, many Chinese companies have realized the importance of mastering core technologies, and have begun to accelerate the development of Chinese chips, investing a lot of money, manpower and material resources to develop core technologies in the field of chip semiconductors. The lithography machine is naturally one of the important directions for the breakthrough of chips in the mainland, and many domestic companies have actually begun to accelerate the development of lithography machines.
Compared with this company, Shanghai Microelectronics, a well-known Chinese lithography machine company, is taking the road of independent research and development of core technologies. Judging from the current news from Shanghai Microelectronics, it has completed the research and development and large-scale mass production of domestic lithography machines with 90nm process. It is worth noting that Shanghai Microelectronics is now accelerating the technological development of 28nm process lithography machines, and there have been many good news of technological breakthroughs.
According to the speculation of some industry insiders, Shanghai Microelectronics' 28nm process lithography machine is likely to start shipping in 2025. If we take into account the construction of factories and production lines, then the time for mass production may be a little later. However, this is enough to meet the main demand for lithography machines in the Chinese market.
Today, the Chinese market has accounted for about one-third of the total global demand for semiconductor equipment such as lithography machines. If you want to accelerate the development of domestic lithography machines, in addition to strengthening the research and development of core technologies, you also need to further expand the production capacity of domestic lithography machines.
Chips are a very complex industrial chain, and at the same time, the technical threshold and manufacturing difficulty are also very high. For the vast majority of enterprises, there is not so much ability to participate in the research and development of core technologies, especially the existence of lithography machines, which can be called the crystallization of equipment technology in the field of human semiconductors.
Therefore, although we need to advocate the research and development and breakthrough of core technologies, we should also encourage enterprises like Shanghai Tushuang to expand production capacity and invest in factory construction.
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