China's semiconductor segment might have witnessed another breakthrough, as a new report claims that SMIC is trialing the first in-house DUV lithography machine.
China's Chipmaking Ambitions Have Led To Producing In-House DUV Equipment, Hoping To Cater To AI Demand
The demand for semiconductors in China has been pretty massive recently, mainly due to the push from domestic AI firms to create computing products. The government is convincing major Chinese firms to switch towards in-house products, and with that, the Chinese chip supply chain sees massive demand. Now, in a report by the Financial Times, it is disclosed that SMIC is testing DUV equipment from the Shanghai-based startup Yuliangsheng, and if the trials prove to be successful, it could potentially mark the foundation of China scaling towards advanced machinery.
SMIC has been heavily reliant on the Dutch firm ASML for its machinery needs. Under the current US export laws, the Chinese firm is limited to less advanced DUV tools, such as early-immersion DUV, through which the firm has scaled up to 7nm production. But, SMIC cannot scale up production anymore by relying on Western alternatives, which is why the firm has restored to domestic options. For now, SMIC is testing 7nm production with Yuliangsheng's DUV equipment.
Interestingly, the domestic DUV machines are claimed to 'scale' up to 5nm production as well, but with phenomenally low yield rates, since achieving the node size through deep-ultraviolet techniques does involve an overhead, in the form of multiple patterning, due to which alignment errors stack up, leading to low yield rates. However, judging by how the only concern for Chinese chip firms is scaling up production, SMIC could compromise on yield rates, as they have done it in the past as well.
China's push for increasing chip production comes from the demand in the AI industry. We reported on how manufacturers are looking to triple the AI chip output to cater to market demand.
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