The use of DUV equipment has greatly impacted the progress of China’s largest semiconductor firm, SMIC. Even though the latter was previously said to have successfully produced its 5nm wafer, mass production continues to suffer from inflated costs and low yields. These setbacks also negatively affect Huawei, which has been unable to cross the 7nm threshold.
Sadly, with ASML barred by U.S. trade sanctions from providing any Chinese entity with ‘state-of-the-art’ EUV machinery, the only possible route for the country’s experts is to produce in-house equipment. According to the latest report, those ambitions are laid out in black and white, with trial production expected to commence in the third quarter of 2025.
These custom EUV machines are said to employ laser-induced discharge plasma (LDP), which is slightly different from ASML’s laser-produced plasma (LPP). Below, we discuss the impact this technological variation will bring to the table.
Actual mass production of China’s homegrown EUV machinery could commence in 2026, with the new approach introducing a simpler design that is also more power-efficient
The full-scale production of these EUV machines is exactly the arsenal that China requires to not just obtain dependency from companies under the influence of the U.S. but also to acquire a competitive advantage. Images shared by X accounts @zephyr_z9 and @Ma_WuKong indicate that a new system is being tested at Huawei’s Dongguan facility. A previous report mentioned that a research team from Harbin Provincial Innovation developed a discharge plasma extreme ultraviolet lithography light source.
This source could produce EUV lights with a 13.5nm wavelength, which meets the demands of the photolithography market. Under the new system currently being trialed at one of Huawei’s facilities, LDP is used to generate 13.5nm EUV radiation. This process involves vaporizing the tin between electrodes and converting it to plasma through high-voltage discharge, with electron-ion collisions producing the required wavelength. How is this approach different from ASML’s LPP?
The Dutch-based giant relies on high-energy lasers and complex Field Programmable Gate Array-based controls. Based on the trial production report, the prototype under testing at the Huawei facility leveraging the laser-induced discharge plasma is said to feature a simpler and smaller design while also consuming less power and costing less to manufacture. Before these tests commenced, China and SMIC continued to rely on older DUV machinery.
The earlier-generation lithography systems use 248nm and 193nm wavelengths, which are significantly inferior compared to EUV’s 13.5nm radiation. SMIC would have to rely on attaining multiple patterning steps to obtain advanced nodes, which not only increased wafer production costs but was a time-consuming process that resulted in a massive bill. It was estimated that SMIC’s 5nm chips would be 50 percent more expensive than TSMC’s when produced on the same lithography, which would explain why the technology has yet to debut in any application.
Huawei is currently limited to developing its Kirin chipsets on the 7nm process, with the former Chinese giant limited to making minor tweaks to make its successive SoCs slightly more capable than their immediate predecessors. With this development, Huawei can significantly bridge the gap between the likes of Qualcomm and Apple, but we have noticed a pattern where such firms experience more roadblocks than a healthy progression. Hopefully, both Huawei and China will overcome these odds and deliver much-needed competition.
