Tech war: Chinese media boast imminent chip-making tech breakthrough, as US threatens more equipment export restrictions

Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment is said to be able to deliver China’s first home-grown 28-nm lithography machine by year-end

China’s access to chip-making machines produced by Dutch giant ASML is becoming increasingly uncertain under US pressure

Reading Time:2 minutes

99+

A Chinese company is close to completing production of the country’s first home-grown 28-nanometre lithography machine, according to local media. Photo: Shutterstock

Ann Caoin Shanghai

Published: 9:00pm, 2 Aug 2023Updated: 12:41am, 3 Aug 2023

Chinese media have played up the possibility that the country could deliver its first home-grown 28-nanometre lithography machine by the end of this year, in what would be a breakthrough in Beijing’s drive towards technological self-sufficiency amid intensifying US-led chip equipment export restrictions.

Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (SMEE) is expected to deliver by year-end its proprietary SSA/800-10W, a 28-nm lithography machine, according to a report last week by Chinese newspaper Securities Daily.

The report was endorsed by state media, including Xinhua News Agency.

Speculation had surfaced as early as 2020 that SMEE, a state-owned firm, was close to unveiling an immersion deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machine based on 28-nm technology by the end of that year.

SMEE, which was added to a trade blacklist by the US Commerce Department in December, did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

The Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment booth during Semicon China, a semiconductor trade fair, in Shanghai in June. Photo: Reuters

For now, China is relying partly on advanced DUVs made by Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML, which has already withheld from Chinese clients its extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines – used by industry giants like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, Samsung Electronics and Intel to make leading-edge chips for smartphones and artificial intelligence applications.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x