Chips can be called the "food" of modern science and technology, and have important applications in many emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and new energy vehicles. It is also indispensable in the field of traditional consumer electronics such as mobile phones and computers, as well as in the fields of medical care and home appliances.
China's industrial chain in the field of consumer electronics such as smartphones and computers is very large, and the development of new energy vehicles, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and other fields is also very rapid. Therefore, China's demand for chips has always been very high, and many chip semiconductor companies are very concerned about the Chinese market.
In recent years, China's chip industry has developed very rapidly, breaking through many key technologies in core technology fields, and is still going further and further on the road of chip localization substitution, and is expected to achieve the goal of 70% chip localization by 2027.
What people didn't expect is that China's successive breakthroughs have attracted more "roadblocks" set up by the United States and the West, but because there are not many leading technology fields, there are only a few fields that can set up "roadblocks", the most critical of which is the field of chip semiconductors.
Chip semiconductor is a very complex industry, which involves chip design, chip manufacturing, chip packaging and testing, semiconductor equipment, semiconductor materials and other fields, and also needs to use chip instruction set architecture, EDA software, chip design platform and other software and hardware tools.
In addition to restricting the shipment of high-end chips, the United States has also formed a tripartite alliance with Japan and the Netherlands to restrict the shipment of semiconductor equipment. In chip manufacturing, 6 types of 23 kinds of semiconductor equipment need to be used, each of which is very critical, the most important of which is the lithography machine, the lithography process accounts for more than 20% of the chip manufacturing, so the lithography machine is also very critical.
The most advanced EUV lithography machine can only be shipped by ASML in the Netherlands. EUV lithography machine is considered to be an important equipment for the production of advanced chips in 7nm and below processes, and it is difficult to manufacture advanced chips in 7nm and below without using EUV lithography machine.
Therefore, if China Chip wants to break through to advanced process chips, it is very important to realize the localization of EUV lithography machines. Judging from the current news, China has basically achieved technological breakthroughs in the three core areas of light source, objective lens and double workbench.
What is even more unexpected is that the team of Tang Chuanxiang of Tsinghua University recently published an article in the journal Nature called "Experimental Demonstration of the Principle of Steady-State Micro-Beaming", from which it can be seen that the team has completed the world's first steady-state micro-beam principle experiment using the metering light source of PTB.
This technology allows the photon source to produce extreme ultraviolet light with high efficiency and high reuse frequency, and extreme ultraviolet light is the core light source in EUV lithography machines, which means that this technology can solve the problem of extreme ultraviolet light sources and help domestic high-end lithography machines break the technical barriers of EUV lithography machines.
Although the EUV lithography machine produced by this technology is large-scale, difficult to relocate, and not so convenient, it can quickly manufacture a large number of usable EUV lithography machines in a short period of time, which can be called "lithography factory" technology.
This will undoubtedly help the rapid development of China's lithography machine and help break through the restrictions of the tripartite agreement. Not only that, Harbin Institute of Technology has recently made core technological breakthroughs in many fields such as high-speed ultra-precision laser interferometer and electric energy conversion ion circuit technology. There is no doubt that the development of China's core has solved a key problem, which can be called the realization of corner overtaking, and it is no wonder that foreign media will say: it has begun to break through.
Judging from the current market situation, the largest market share in the field of lithography machines is the Dutch lithography machine giant ASML, which is also the only company that can ship EUV lithography machines. Although the shipment volume of EUV lithography machine is not large, it has been about 50% of ASML's revenue for a long time.
This basically means that if China completes a breakthrough in EUV lithography machines, it means that ASML's revenue will be severely affected. After all, judging from the level of China's production capacity and technological development, after achieving a technological breakthrough in EUV lithography machines, it will not only be able to break ASML's current market monopoly, but also be able to "knock down" the product
This basically means that it is not so simple for ASML to continue to "harvest" with its exclusive EUV lithography machine in the future. This also caused concern to ASML, after all, no one wants one more competitor to come out, so the president of ASML has previously said internationally: China's research and development of lithography machines and chips is undermining the international order.
This kind of remarks is naturally nonsense, if it were not for ASML to cooperate with the United States to restrict the export of EUV lithography machines, China would not be so anxious to develop advanced lithography machine equipment, not to mention that China has enough demand for lithography machines, if it cannot be imported, it will naturally adopt independent research and development to meet the needs of the market.
Postscript:
The United States and the West have united to curb the development of China's chips by restricting the shipment of semiconductor equipment, but what people did not expect is that China has made breakthroughs in EUV lithography machines one after another, and Tsinghua University has recently announced the "lithography factory" plan, which has attracted widespread attention from the international community.
Judging from the current situation, once China has achieved a technological breakthrough and broken the status quo that only ASML can ship EUV lithography machines, ASML will not be able to continue to ship in large quantities as it is now, and with EUV lithography machines to obtain a large amount of revenue and profits, there is no doubt that ASML has begun to be anxious, and even foreign media have said: The breakthrough has begun.
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