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The research and development of lithography machines is imminent, and new regulations have been released. TSMC may not have thought of it.

From: Date:2022-6-22

Chip manufacturing is the top priority, but my country's development is slightly slower

Although Huawei will design chips, in the final analysis, the biggest source of Huawei's problems lies in chip manufacturing. In the current industry, chip manufacturing mainly relies on two companies, one is TSMC and the other is Samsung. Although my country also has certain technologies in this area, its strength is far from TSMC. The most important thing is that at present, TSMC and Samsung have developed in 5nm, 4nm and other technologies, while my country is still stuck at 14nm, and 7nm manufacturing has become a problem.

The main reason is that my country cannot import EUV lithography machines. Because the traditional DUV lithography machine cannot manufacture chip products of 7nm and above, if you want to create advanced technology, you can only choose EUV lithography machine. However, due to the limitations of various factors, the procurement of related equipment has been delayed, which has directly led to the slow progress of my country's chip manufacturing.

Unexpectedly, the EUV lithography machine was targeted

Recently, the new regulations for lithography machines have been released again. The emergence of the new regulations caught many people off guard, and even companies such as TSMC and Samsung did not expect it. According to the new regulations, EUV lithography equipment produced by ASML in the future not only needs to be licensed for shipment, but also cannot enter the branches of foreign companies in China. This means that domestic branches of foreign chip companies cannot purchase advanced EUV lithography equipment.

You must know that global chip giants such as TSMC, Samsung, SK have a large number of branches in China, and even most of SK's production capacity is completed in China, and the emergence of this rule undoubtedly directly affects these companies. Manufacturing progress and development status. Therefore, neither TSMC nor Samsung are immune to this new regulation.

The emergence of this rule is not conducive to the development of enterprises and the development of Chinese enterprises. First of all, for enterprises, domestic branches cannot purchase advanced equipment, which means that these branches can only choose backward mature technologies for manufacturing. This will also cause some companies to choose to go abroad to build factories, increasing the cost of building factories and increasing risks.

Secondly, once an enterprise leaves the domestic market and develops elsewhere, it will directly slow down the local development speed and be a loss to the local economy.

Independent research and development of lithography machine is imminent

It is not difficult to see that this new regulation is actually aimed at the development speed of EUV lithography machines and chips in my country. But the more in this case, the more urgent the research and development of the lithography machine. Although we may not be able to achieve independent research and development and production of all components, as long as the key components are de-beautified, the manufacture and production of purely domestic lithography machines may not be a fantasy. You know, Shanghai Microelectronics has achieved results in the production of 28nm lithography machines, and has also made breakthroughs in some key technologies. As long as this state is guaranteed, the problem of the lithography machine will break through sooner or later.