At present, in the field of chip manufacturing, the lithography process is the process used by almost all wafer fabs, especially in the relatively advanced process, which is all lithography process.
Under the lithography process, lithography machines, etching machines are indispensable, among which the lithography machine is the most important, because of its high threshold, difficulty in research and development, and complex chain, it is the highest equipment among all chip manufacturing equipment.
What's more, there are only four manufacturers in the world that can produce lithography machines, and only ASML is able to produce EUV lithography machines for chips of 7nm and below.
It can be said that it is very difficult for any lithography machine factory to manufacture EUV lithography machines, and ASML has tied all the upstream and downstream to its own warship.
Therefore, other lithography machine manufacturers, in recent years, have basically bypassed EUV technology and looked for other technologies to achieve the same function of EUV lithography machines.
Among them, there are several technologies that everyone is also very familiar with, namely NIL nanoimprint technology, BLE electron beam technology, X-ray technology, and DSA self-growth technology.
These four technologies are considered to be the most likely to bypass the EUV blockade and achieve the direction of 7nm and below technologies.
Among them, the NIL nanoimprint technology has made the most rapid progress, and the Japanese lithography machine manufacturer Canon cooperated with SK hynix a few years ago to launch the NIL nanoimprint machine for memory chips, but it is used in 65nm such a process.
And last year, Canon released the latest nanoimprint semiconductor device, the FPA-1200NZ2C, saying that it can be used in the manufacture of 5nm chips without the need to use EUVs.
Recently, Canon once again stated that this nanoimprint machine FPA-1200NZ2C will be mass-produced this year, and the cost of this nanoimprint machine is only about 10% of EUV, and the power consumption is only 10% of EUV technology.
At the same time, after the use of nanoimprint machine, its supporting equipment, compared with the cost of EUV supporting equipment, is reduced by 40%.
Canon also said that this device will continue to be upgraded in the future, and by 2026, it is expected to be used in the manufacture of 2nm chips, completely bypassing the EUV lithography machine solution.
Of course, since this nanoimprint machine FPA-1200NZ2C has not been fully mass-produced, I don't know if Canon is bragging, or if it's really good.
At the same time, some industry insiders said that the yield of nanoimprint technology is estimated to be less than EUV, and the production capacity and efficiency will be much lower than that of EUV solutions, so it is not very suitable for large-scale chip manufacturing industry, and is more suitable for small-batch chip production.
However, it is undeniable that if Canon's technology is fully mass-produced, it will be a huge impact on the EUV lithography machine and a real disruptor.
Because of the ban, we definitely can't buy it at the moment, but at least it also gives us a new direction to learn from, maybe next, we don't have to die on EUV technology, what do you think?