China claims chipmaking gear advance despite tightening US curbs: Report

State-linked organisations are advised to use new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the govt said in an announcement this month

By Gao Yuan

China has claimed a breakthrough in the development of homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals.
 

State-linked organisations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in an announcement this month. Though the note doesn’t specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most-advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co. — which stood at around 90nm.

Chipmaking equipment is one of the key bottlenecks in China’s semiconductor ambitions, which the US is trying to contain. Companies like SMEE are racing to develop machines that can close the gap with suppliers like ASML Holding NV, which are now barred from shipping to China. The advances claimed by MIIT last week suggest that homegrown rivals are starting to make headway in developing more sophisticated machines, though SMEE and its peers have a long way to go to catch the likes of ASML.

The resolution of the gear determines the scale at which integrated circuits can be imprinted onto silicon, and ASML’s best lithography machines now have a resolution of roughly 8nm. One approach to improve the density of transistors is etching lower-resolution patterns multiple times, as used by Huawei Technologies Co., which helps narrow the gap. Still, the US-led trade campaign to limit China’s access to advanced chips and chipmaking equipment has stifled its competitiveness in developing nascent technologies such as AI, which require the most advanced semiconductors.

In its note, the MIIT also named a slew of additional home-developed chip-related gear it wanted to see put into wider use, including oxidation furnaces and dry-etching gear.

Chinese semiconductor manufacturers rarely provide any great visibility into their chipmaking technology, as the segment has been identified by Beijing as “strategically critical” to national security. SMEE has managed to develop a lithography machine that can be used to make 28nm chips, key state backer Zhangjiang Group declared in 2023. It’s unclear whether that machine has gone into production, nor how it relates to last week’s notice from the MIIT.

While it’s widely believed that China would struggle to move far beyond its current level of sophistication — as exemplified by Huawei’s 7nm Kirin mobile chip introduced a year ago — the lack of transparency has elicited concern in Washington about the effectiveness of its trade curbs.

The Biden administration has implemented sweeping export controls on China and has also pressed the Netherlands for tighter restrictions on ASML’s China business. China relies on ASML’s immersion deep ultraviolet lithography systems to advance its chipmaking technology, as the country has not yet been able to develop similarly capable equipment.