With the intensification of chip competition between China and the United States, the attention to chips on the domestic Internet has gradually increased, and many people have realized the importance of chips. In fact, with the rapid development of emerging industries such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and new energy vehicles, chips that play an important role in these fields have become even more "fragrant".
With the increase of domestic attention to chips, the lithography machines required for the lithography process, which accounts for more than 20% of the chip manufacturing environment, have also begun to attract the attention of many people in China. The lithography machine can not only be applied to the chip manufacturing process, but also to the chip packaging and testing process to achieve high-performance chip packaging and testing.
At present, China has a number of internationally renowned semiconductor equipment companies such as Shanghai Microelectronics, North Huachuang, China Microelectronics, etc., among which Shanghai Microelectronics has developed rapidly in the field of lithography machines, and has entered the top ten in the world, basically second only to ASML in the Netherlands and Nikon, Canon and a few other companies in Japan.
The lithography process made in China has reached 90nm, and chips with 65nm process can be produced under many times. Previously, Shanghai Microelectronics also reported that it has completed the technological breakthrough of the 28nm lithography machine and is expected to be shipped to the Chinese market at the end of 2023 or early 2024.
In the field of lithography machines, ASML, a semiconductor equipment manufacturer in the Netherlands, can be said to be the industry leader, not only the only company in the world that can ship EUV lithography machines, but also the company with the largest number of lithography machines shipped in the world.
ASML engineers once said very arrogantly: even if the design drawings of the lithography machine are handed over to China, China will not be able to manufacture advanced lithography machines. However, it is clear that China today can build lithography machines without the need for ASML's lithography machine drawings.
In fact, around the 80s of the last century, the technical level of Chinese lithography machines was not inferior to that of the United States and the West, but due to a large number of low-cost lithography machines shipped to the Chinese market by American and Western companies, it was difficult for Chinese lithography machine manufacturers to compete. In addition, the idea of "making is better than buying, buying is better than renting" prevailed in domestic enterprises at that time, so the domestic lithography machine gradually weakened, until it began to develop rapidly again in recent years.
ASML, a leading enterprise in the field of lithography machines, has actually experienced many difficulties in the development process, and is even on the verge of bankruptcy, but it has finally survived. From this point, it is not difficult to see that the future development of China's lithography machine industry may not be able to surpass ASML and other American and Western companies.
In order to curb the development of China's chip industry, the United States has not only repeatedly revised chip rules and restricted the shipment of advanced chips, technologies and materials. It also signed a tripartite agreement with Japan and the Netherlands to restrict shipments of semiconductor equipment. Under repeated pressure and demands from the United States, the Netherlands finally announced that it would restrict the shipment of semiconductor equipment from September 1.
However, on September 1, the day when the Dutch semiconductor equipment export control came into effect, ASML publicly stated that it had obtained a shipment license and could continue to ship lithography machines until 2024. Not only that, ASML has been accelerating the shipment of semiconductor equipment to the Chinese market since the second quarter of this year.
Judging from the financial report data released by ASML, the share of its revenue in the first three quarters of this year from the Chinese market accounted for % and 48% respectively. From this data, it is not difficult to see that ASML seems to be in a hurry to accelerate the shipment of equipment to the Chinese market than Chinese chip companies.
This is actually because of the rapid rise of domestic equipment manufacturers, a variety of semiconductor equipment has completed the localization of substitution, and Tsinghua University has put forward the concept of "lithography factory". ASML began to be anxious, worried that the technical level in the field of lithography machines would be surpassed by China. ASML has experienced similar situations many times in its history, and even was on the verge of bankruptcy for a time, so ASML probably doesn't want to try again.
Founded in 1984, ASML is a company focusing on the production of high-end lithography machines, mainly providing a complete set of solutions including lithography machines, lithography simulation and lithography inspection and supporting services, and components.
In 1984, several technical members of Philips' lithography equipment R&D team thought: "Anyway, we all produce lithography machines, why don't we do it ourselves?"What's more, the future development prospects of lithography machines are outstanding. So, these people left Philips and created ASML.
For a long time, ASML's performance was not ideal, the technical level lagged behind the semiconductor equipment manufacturers in the United States and Japan, and the lithography machines shipped could basically only be sold to Philips, and ASML even had financial problems many times.
In 1990, ASML ushered in a turning point in its fate. In this year, ASML launched the PAS5500 series lithography machine, breaking the monopoly of American and Japanese manufacturers, and ASML gradually began to become one of the world's well-known lithography machine companies.
From 1999 to 2007, ASML began to expand its product line, and continued to optimize its product line through large-scale mergers and acquisitions, and ASML ushered in a stage of rapid development. In 2001, ASML completed the acquisition of Silicon Valley Group (SVG) in the United States. At this time, SVG already had mature 157nm optical technology, and after the acquisition of SVG, ASML's lithography machine technology reached the world's leading level.
Since then, ASML's technical level has begun to develop rapidly, and even led to technological changes in the industry. In 2001, ASML introduced a dual-stage lithography machine.
However, although ASML has expanded at this stage, it is still facing the "containment" of Japanese lithography machine companies Gemini Nikon and Canon, as well as the strong influence of a number of American semiconductor equipment companies. At that time, ASML was even beaten by Nikon and Canon for a time, and experienced many bad experiences on the verge of bankruptcy.
However, ASML has once again ushered in a turning point. At that time, Nikon and Canon in Japan planned to use dry lithography machines in the future development of lithography machines, and the industry basically thought so. ASML tried a wet lithography machine at the suggestion of TSMC Lin Benjian, which is now an immersion lithography machine.
In 2004, ASML launched the first immersion lithography machine prototype, after which the immersion lithography machine began to sweep the lithography machine market, and ASML also took advantage of this to surpass Nikon, Canon and other semiconductor equipment companies in one fell swoop, becoming one of the industry leaders.
After that, Intel and other semiconductor companies in the United States formed an "EUV Alliance", and ASML was the only non-American semiconductor company among them. Later, the consortium developed EUV light source technology, which led to the development of EUV lithography machines, and until now ASML is the only company that can ship EUV lithography machines.
It is not difficult to see from the development history of ASML that at a certain stage, as long as the key route for future development is selected, it is very likely to achieve corner overtaking, and ASML can limit the shipment of lithography machines, but China's lithography factories have completed the preliminary verification, and the future development may not be known.
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