In the next 3-5 years, Chinese mainland will no longer lack immersion DUV lithography machines, and the problem of 5nm chips will be solved.
ASML's EUV lithography machine, Chinese mainland can not buy, the only thing to do, is to buy deep ultraviolet lithography machine, whether imported, or imported, ASML has said many times, this everyone knows.
However, due to restrictions in countries such as the Netherlands and the United States, ASML's DUV lithography machines (NXT: 2100 I and 2050 I) will stop selling from January 1 next year, as their production licenses have been revoked.
ASML did not disclose the other two immersion deep ultraviolet lithography machines, the NXT:2000 I and NXT:1980 DI, which are not marketable when the United States bans production in October next year, and its DCO content exceeds the US limit.
On the Japanese side, because of the 40 nm process chips, it is not allowed in China, that is to say, it is impossible for any of Nikon's chips to be exported to China.
Therefore, many people are worried, will we use immersion lithography machines in the next step? It is important to know that lithography machines above 65 nm use wet lithography technology, while conventional DUV dry plates can only produce chips above 65 nm.
In fact, there is no need to worry that in the next three to five years, China will not lack deep ultraviolet lithography equipment.
ASML simply announced that the patents for the NXT 2100 I and 2050 I have been cancelled, and that the NXT 2000 I and 1980 DXT lithography machines are the same in terms of accuracy, with the only difference being performance.
And in 2023, the number of lithography machines purchased by China from ASML will reach 60 billion, more than three times that of 2022, mainly focused on penetrating deep ultraviolet lithography machines, which means that we have made full preparations, and from the current practical application, it should be no problem in another 3-5 years.
You know, it's only 100 billion to 20 billion Huaxia coins a year, but this time, it's 60 billion Huaxia coins, which is enough for them to use it for several years.
The third reason is that China's semiconductor equipment has made new progress, and it may not take three to five years to solve this problem.
TSMC's 7 nm lithography machine, which is used to produce 7 nanometers, uses an immersion deep ultraviolet lithography machine, and the 7 nanometers on the Huawei Mate60 are produced in this way.
Lin Benjian, the founder of the osmotic lithography machine, once said that from 7 nm to 5 nm, it can be done, the only problem is that the number of exposures will be more and the cost will be higher, but this is not the most critical.
That is to say, in the next three to five years, we will not worry about the lithography machine, we have enough time to do EUV lithography technology above 5 nm, three to five years, maybe everything will change, we have no need to worry at all.