After undergoing a historic IPO, one that resulted in a veritable frenzy among investors, China's CXMT has apparently entered an August list of Chinese semi players that are slated to receive some of the very first domestically produced DUV lithography units this year, a development that is sure to supercharge CXMT's next-gen bets.
China plans to produce 5 DUV machines this year and 20 next year, as CXMT gains expedited access to power its next-gen bets
According to The Information, a China-based company, formally called Shanghai Yuliangsheng Technology, has now entered the DUV lithography business, with plans to produce 5 units this year, and 20 in the next year.
Interestingly, CXMT is slated to get one of the first deliveries alongside SMIC and Hua Hong, indicating the importance that Beijing attaches to these entities.
While details are scarce at the moment, Yuliangsheng is apparently manufacturing 28nm immersion lithography machines, with most parts manufactured domestically, although, some critical components have been imported from Japan.
The development effectively neutralizes the US MATCH Act that seeks to prevent Chinese companies from purchasing or servicing Western DUV machines.
For the benefit of those who might not be aware, Deep Ultraviolet (DUV) lithography (Argon Fluoride lasers) uses ultraviolet light with a wavelength of 193 nanometers (nm) to etch patterns onto a silicon wafer. By repeating these etching steps, DUV-based multi-patterning techniques can create progressively more intricate circuits.
DTCO or Design Technology Co-Optimization is an advanced technique that seeks to optimize chip design, manufacturing processes, and yield management simultaneously rather than in the form of discrete steps to achieve feature sizes that would have only been possible otherwise with EUV-based lithography.
When DTCO is used in conjunction with multi-patterning, the resulting flows reduce the impact of process variations and edge placement errors (EPE) - the variation between an etched feature and its planned placement within chip design schematics - that become progressively acute as aggressive DUV multi-patterning progresses.
Domestically-sourced DUV machines will bolster CXMT's resilience and plans for next-gen 3D DRAM
CXMT went public today, and by the end of the trading session, clocked gains of nearly 500 percent! The company plans to use this new cash to aggressively expand its capacity, to the tune of 300,000 wafers per month by the end of this year from its current capacity of just around 200,000 wafers per month.
What's more, the memory maker is currently building two new fabs in Shanghai and Hefei, which would increase its production capacity to 600,000 wafers per month. In fact, CXMT is now on course to overtake Micron in volume production by 2030.
Currently, CXMT is mass producing 1a DRAM on its G5 process node. However, with its access to EUV lithography machines cut off, CXMT is betting on next-gen 3D DRAM, where memory cells are stacked vertically to increase capacity, rather than concentrating on etching increasingly smaller horizontal features with the help of EUV machines. This approach maximizes raw bit density and storage capacity without shrinking horizontal nodes
Do note the following:
- CXMT can use Argon Fluoride (ArF) immersion DUV systems to etch horizontal features on a number of layers, and then vertically stack them via hybrid bonding.
- The company has developed proprietary 3D DRAM cell structures, including a vertical Gate-All-Around (GAA) wordline combined with horizontal capacitors and bitlines, heavily reducing row-hammer disturbance.
- CXMT has already partnered with companies like Qualcomm and GigaDevice to build customized 3D DRAM for localized on-device NPUs in smartphones.
- CXMT is already testing its W2W or Wafer-to-Wafer Hybrid Bonding for the next-gen bonded DRAM - where the memory chip's data-storage cells and its control logic circuits are built on separate silicon wafers and then fused together vertically using advanced packaging - at a pilot line in Hefei, China, with the primary goal of mass producing high-density memory.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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