Chips are a treasure in the world of science and technology, and their importance is self-evident. After decades of development, our mature process chips have made significant progress, so don't worry. However, the development of high-end process chips still needs continuous efforts. Why?One of the key factors is the lithography machine. As an indispensable core equipment in the chip manufacturing process, it plays a vital role in chip production.
However, the manufacturing level of lithography machines of Shanghai Microelectronics needs to be improved. At the moment, we are mainly dependent on imports. The global lithography machine market is dominated by the Dutch ASML, and this situation continues to this day. Recently, however, the situation has changed. Nikon and Canon have announced that the landscape of the lithography machine market is changing!
Since the advent of the semiconductor industry, the lithography machine industry has undergone many changes. At that time, the leading lithography machine giant was an American company, but it was later surpassed by Nikon and Canon, Japan's "lithography machine duo", and became the new lithography machine giant. Subsequently, ASML rose to prominence with immersion lithography technology and became the hegemon in the field of lithography machines.
Although American companies have withdrawn from the field of lithography machines, they have never given up on interfering. After U.S. companies were overtaken by Japan's Nikon and Canon, the U.S. intended to support ASML and exclude Japanese companies from EUV technology. Now, the change in the lithography machine market has entered a new stage, and we can wait and see. When Intel led the creation of the EUV technology organization, both ASML and Nikon were eager to join the organization to share this advanced technology. However, the United States dismissed Nikon's application and let ASML have exclusive access to the technology. This approach has caused Japanese lithography machine companies to collapse, and the gap with ASML is getting wider and wider.
However, this has also made ASML shackled by the US side for a long time. Although it has promised to build a R&D center and factory in the United States, it will be inspected by the United States every year, and a certain proportion of devices will be imported from American companies, so ASML's lithography machine shipments are restricted by the United States.
It is precisely for this reason that in 2018, SMIC ordered an EUV lithography machine from ASML, and the US side successfully prevented its arrival. Today, the American side has even begun to limit the immersion DUV of ASML.
Naturally, ASML was very dissatisfied with this. After all, it's a huge loss of money and time. Even though it had exclusive access to the EUV technology from the United States, ASML continued to invest heavily in research and development to finally turn this technology into a production-ready lithography machine. In recent years, the expansion rate of global fabs has slowed down, but the Chinese mainland market has been steadily expanding. ASML must not take this lightly, after all, the mainland market is an indispensable piece of cake for them. Even in the face of the escalating export controls of the United States, even if the United States, Japan and the Netherlands have reached a cooperation agreement, and the Netherlands has made it clear that it will implement export controls, ASML is still trying to sell its products to China, and the revenue from the mainland has reached 46% in the third quarter. Why is ASML working so hard?On the one hand, Chinese mainland has always been working hard to overcome the technical bottleneck of high-end lithography machines, and the return of Huawei Kirin chips means that the mainland chip industry chain has made new breakthroughs, and perhaps Shanghai Microelectronics has achieved significant scientific research results. On the other hand, ASML's rivals Nikon and Canon are not far behind and are also scrambling to seize the mainland market. The first is Canon.
100 Support Program Although Canon has always mainly produced low-end lithography machines, although the number of shipments is large, the total amount is relatively small. However, Canon did not abandon its quest to surpass ASML and took another path – developing NIL nanoimprint technology. This is a promising new type of lithography that is different from ASML's traditional lithography technology. Canon, the calm elephant, has finally taken a decisive step when they have successfully launched a lithography device with NIL technology, which has caused a global uproar.
The manufacturing process of this device has reached an impressive 5nm, and the next goal is to amaze peers, that is, 2nm, and the target is ASML's EUV lithography machine!Nikon, on the other hand, has chosen a unique path, still sticking to the path of traditional lithography technology, and persistently moving forward.
They had lost out to ASML in this area, but they were not discouraged and focused on immersion lithography. Recently, they have also made a breakthrough in this area and started selling immersion DUV lithography machines to the outside world. Although the current shipments are not too large, they have not given up, but have invested in the construction of factories on a larger scale, aiming to further develop the Chinese mainland market. And now, Nikon is on the offensive again, introducing an even more advanced ARF immersion lithography machine, ready to compete with ASML!
Nikon has been watching ASML make a lot of money in the mainland market, while it has fallen into a slump of performance due to Japan's export controls. This situation made them very dissatisfied. As a result, they also began to look for opportunities to export lithography machines to China, hoping to find more room for development in the Chinese market. This kind of spirit is worthy of our deep thought. The two bigwigs, Japan's Canon and Nikon, saw the growing demand of the mainland market and took decisive action. This battle for the lithography machine has caused an uproar, and some foreign media even predicted: "The lithography machine counterattack has accelerated!"."However, we must have a clear understanding that as long as we cross the threshold of domestic lithography machines, we can completely break the problem!