The ban on EUV lithography machines in mainland China was broken by Korean companies, and the means reappeared 10 years ago!
Small jump said technology.
Since the EUV lithography machine was banned from being sold in China, Korean companies have realized this, and they know very well that this action is not only aimed at the country, but also against South Korea. Samsung and SK hynix are both based in China as their main manufacturing base, and occupy a fairly high proportion.
Even if the United States agreed to the exemption, it could not allow Korean companies to enter the EUV lithography machine market. Many experts believe that the move may be an attempt to force South Korean companies to withdraw from their factories in the country and then move their production bases elsewhere.
However, SK hynix has already made it clear that it will not retreat. So, if that's the case, is SK hynix planning to abandon advanced manufacturing processes? SK hynix is not stupid either, and they have already figured out a solution to the domestic restrictions on EUV lithography machines.
According to published information, SK hynix manufactures chip No. 4 in 10 nm process in three steps. The first step is to keep some of the domestic products, and the other step is to bring the finished chips back to South Korea and enter the EUV process. The next three steps are to send all the chips back to China for final production.
This cost is naturally higher than that of domestic manufacturing, not to mention the problem of freight in the middle. However, because the fourth-generation aircraft only adopts a single exposure method, this additional cost far exceeds its selling price.
In this way, SK hynix will be able to make a lot of money and break the blockade of lithography technology.
SK Hynix has been repeating the same approach for a decade.
Because of the fire at the factory in the mainland at that time, SK Hynix was facing the severed ** chain. In order to minimize the loss, SK immediately shipped the remaining chips back to China for production and then back to China. Although the production volume has been reduced a lot, the possibility of supply has been greatly reduced, and SK hynix has overcome the difficulty of losing the best in a short period of time.
Now, he has used the same method, which shows that SK hynix thinks this method is feasible. And this is indeed the case, the problem of lithography technology was easily solved by them, leaving a "one" back door for Lao Mei.
Now, I'm afraid even Lao Mei and Xu are "dumbfounded", right?
The reason why they did this is nothing more than to force South Korean companies to withdraw from their production bases and restrict the domestic semiconductor industry, but now it seems that Korean companies have taken the lead in setting an example, and the affected foreign manufacturers have also followed suit. However, this practice is not suitable for Chinese enterprises, because Chinese enterprises are prohibited from entering the Chinese market.
If we don't want to be targeted, we have to rely on our own lithography machines.
However, we are not worried, ASML is the most important thing. Because they were banned from shipping, they lost some of their sales. In addition, Japanese companies have been eyeing the Chinese market, so they can only do everything they can to sell their products. At that time, with the passage of time, the United States' restrictions on EUV lithography machines will only be a formality. What do you think about this? Please leave a comment, like, share here!