China has no hope to buy 5nm extreme ultraviolet lithography machine from USA!
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now before we get started be sure to subscribe and push the notification bell,
so that you don't miss any of our great. Recently, China has entered the 43rd year of
reform and opening up, and the construction and development of various industries have
also made considerable progress. However, in this process, it often encounters obstacles set by some
countries, so China can only explore independently and innovate independently on the basis of
learning from the experience of other countries. Under Chinese experts’ hard work and perseverance,
Chinese researchers have set records and made history time and time again,
proving our strength to the world. The United States once again obstructed. American obstruction
means that China has no hope of buying a 5nm extreme ultraviolet lithography machine.
However, in the semiconductor industry, China has not yet reached the world's leading level.
This type of high-tech has always been a problem we want to overcome. Some time ago, China wanted
to buy an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine from the Netherlands, but it was unsuccessful
under the obstruction of the United States. What is an extreme ultraviolet lithography
machine? Since we hope to buy extreme ultraviolet lithography machines from other countries, it is
enough to show that this kind of machine is very important. In fact, the lithography machine is one
of the core equipment for chip manufacturing. According to usage, it can be divided into
lithography machine for chip production, lithography machine for packaging and projection
lithography machine for LED manufacturing. Among them, the lithography machine used to produce
chips is a shortcoming of China's semiconductor equipment manufacturing. The high-end lithography
machines required by China's chip manufacturing plants are completely dependent on imports,
and many companies will import lithography machines from the Netherlands for chip production.
In terms of high-end lithography machines, in addition to leading companies ASML, Nikon
and Canon have also made lithography machines , and Nikon has also received orders from Intel.
However, in recent years, Nikon, which was able to equalize ASML in the high-end lithography market,
has fallen far behind ASML. Even if Nikon lowers the price of the lithography machine
it sells by a large margin, it is still difficult to change this situation.
why is that? On the one hand, Intel's new CEO will no longer continue the contract with Nikon
after taking office, which makes Nikon lose a major customer. On the other hand,
it is also related to the lack of Nikon's technical strength. Compared with ASML,
Nikon's lithography machine has many flaws, such as operating system architecture, etc.
What's more, its actual performance is far from the official publicity. It is impossible for TSMC,
Intel, Samsung, GlobalFoundries and other large chip makers to buy such defective
products in order to save a little money. At present, Nikon has basically lost to ASML
in this aspect of high-end lithography machines . In the mainstream semiconductor production line,
only a few old Nikon or Canon low-level lithography machines are still in use, and
the rest are ASML lithography machines. In this case, Nikon's lithography machine can only seize
the market through ultra-low prices. According to data, ASML's extreme ultraviolet lithography
machine NXE 3350B sells for more than 100 million US dollars, and ArF Immersion is about 70 million
US dollars. In contrast, the price of Nikon lithography machines is only one third of ASML.
The extreme ultraviolet lithography machine is also called EUV lithography machine.
The technology it applies to will use EUV light with a wavelength of only 13.5nm.
It can engrave fine circuit patterns with an exposure plate pitch of less than 20nm, which
is impossible for traditional photolithography machines. In the process of putting the extreme
ultraviolet lithography machine into actual use, a variety of element technologies are needed,
including light sources, optical devices, masks, photoresists, and lithography tools.
Among these component technologies, the biggest challenge is the technology to generate a powerful
EUV beam with an extremely short wavelength of 13.5nm. This EUV beam can be obtained from
high-temperature and high-density plasma, and there are two ways to generate plasma:
one is laser-generated plasma, which is generated by converging a strong laser beam on a specific
material, and the other is The discharge generates plasma, which is generated by pulsed high current.
The EUV beam emitted from the plasma is collected by the condenser and then falls on the mask.
Finally, the EUV beam reflected by the mask is exposed by the projection optics to form a pattern
on the photoresist coated on the wafer surface. Today, EUV lithography technology is still in
the development process and is expected to be put into practical use within a few years.
The output power required for mass production is 350W or even higher.
However, the output power of EUV light sources currently used in production is about 100W,
which is still at a relatively low level. U.S. obstructs China's purchase
of extreme ultraviolet lithography machines. As early as 2018, China has been hoping to
purchase an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine from ASML in the Netherlands. This
lithography machine weighs 180 tons and is worth 150 million US dollars. But until now,
we have not been able to receive the goods. The reason is the obstruction by the United States.
China's current goal is to achieve mass production of extreme ultraviolet lithography machines
and put them into use in 2030. In fact, the lithography machine cannot be simply summarized
with prefixes such as 5nm and 7nm. Divided according to the light source, the development
of lithography machine has gone through 5 stages so far, and the lithography machine in the fourth
stage is divided into two types, namely the fourth generation stepper projection lithography machine,
and the first The fourth generation immersion projection lithography machine.
The fourth-generation immersion projection lithography machine is more advanced than
the fourth-generation step-by-step projection lithography machine. The fourth-generation
step-by- step projection lithography machine can only accurately determine the process node of
the manufacturing chip during the production process. To 65nm, and the fourth-generation
immersion projection lithography machine can exceed this limit, reaching the limit of 7nm.
This can be achieved thanks to Lin Benjian of TSMC, who proposed adding a millimeter of water
to the photoresist, so that the wavelength of 193nm can be changed to 134nm through refraction.
The improved fourth-generation immersion projection lithography machine can produce
both 28nm chips and 7nm chips. According to the naming standard mentioned above,
we can either say that it is a 28nm lithography machine or a 7nm lithography machine,
so this statement is not completely accurate. The extreme ultraviolet lithography machine that
our country wants to buy has the technology that can raise the limit to 1nm . If we have
such a technology, we will be able to keep up with the world's top level before the overall
technological level of the lithography machine breaks through this limit. But at present,
China has only mastered the technology of the fourth-generation stepper projection lithography
machine, and the fourth-generation immersion projection lithography machine is only in the
stage of demonstration of mass production. That's all there is to it for today.
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