Hi everyone, Welcome to China Technology Channel, where we follow the latest
science and technology developments in China. Today we are talking about How difficult to
manufacture a lithography machine? But China made it! One of the most popular issues is lithography
machine. What exactly is a lithography machine? How difficult to make the lithography machine?
Why is the whole world squeezing out the forehead for this small light source?
In the final analysis, it is also because of that small chip.
With chip technology, we have top technology and master the lifeblood of the economy. How
did this few nanometers of technology that the global economy depend on developed to today?
What can we learn from this? Taking history as a mirror, we can know the rise and fall.
We must use history to reflect the reality and look at the future from afar, so as
to avoid being photographed on the ground and falling into a forgotten corner in the torrent.
First, let us take a look at the engraving machine. development of:
Nearly a hundred years can be called the era of electric energy, and in the past half century,
weak electricity with silicon as the carrier has been the key technology for the prosperity of the
entire world economy. All chip manufacturers have been racking their brains for decades,
hoping to cram more transistors into each small silicon wafer to create a more powerful chip.
To do this, then lithography technology is one of the core technologies of the entire industry.
When it comes to this, everyone should have a certain understanding
of the importance of lithography machines. So how difficult is the lithography machine?
Why is there still only a few lithography machine companies in the world with the
rapid development of technology today? Next, let's take a look at the mystery:
Since 2005, the traditional chip technology: DUV (Deep Ultraviolet Lithography) has gradually
reached its limit. 7nm is a physical limit of DUV, and the giants are also unable to do anything.
In 2007, the American cymer company suddenly announced that they had made a breakthrough in
the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light source, which dropped a heavy bomb on the entire semiconductor
industry. At that time, no one knew whether this EUV lithography light source was reliable or not.
However, cymer company has come up with dozens of pages of agreement signed with ASML company,
and plans to start the first batch of supply in 2008, and also explained the technical details in
detail, EUV technology can directly reduce the size of transistors by 75%. The only EUV wafer
fabs are TSMC and Samsung, which can produce 5nm products, and Intel can only buy products from
them, and it can't make them themselves. It is still only 14nm of DUV technology. Since 2007,
Intel has After 13 years of practice, but not yet, we know how difficult this EUV is.
After we understand the difficulties of lithography machines,
how about the Chinese lithography machine market in the global environment?
According to data released by the International Semiconductor Industry Association (SEMI), the
global sales of semiconductor production equipment reached US$71.2 billion in 2020, an increase of
US$11.4 billion from US$59.8 billion in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 19%. Equipment sales
in the Chinese mainland market rose 39 percent from the previous year to $18.72 billion. Due
to the popularity of 5G and the demand for home office caused by the new crown pneumonia epidemic,
investment in semiconductor foundries is booming. China's technology accumulation and talent
pool in lithography machines are relatively insufficient. Although it cannot manufacture
high-end lithography machines, it can manufacture some low-end and mid-end lithography machines.
Since 2008, China has begun to attach importance to the research and development of lithography
machines. In order to promote the development of China's integrated circuit manufacturing industry,
the state has decided to implement a major scientific and technological special project
"very large-scale integrated circuit manufacturing equipment and complete
sets of processes" (also known as "02 special project"). Under this project, the Chinese
research team has overcome difficulties all the way, and the first domestically
produced 90-nanometer high-end lithography machine has been successfully developed.
In April 2019, the Wuhan Optoelectronics National Research Center Gan Zongsong team used two lasers
to break through the diffraction limit of the beam on the self-developed photoresist,
and used far-field optics to lithography with a minimum line width of 9 nanometers. line
segment. This achievement realizes the three major localizations of lithography machine materials,
software and components in one fell swoop. In June 2020, Shanghai Microelectronics
Equipment Co., Ltd. revealed that it will deliver the first domestically produced 28nm
process immersion lithography machine in 2021-2022. This means that the domestic
lithography machine process has broken through from the previous 90 nanometers to 28 nanometers.
Although there is a big gap between the domestic 28-nanometer lithography machine and the
5-nanometer top process that has been launched, the common radio frequency chips, Bluetooth chips,
power amplifier chips, chips on routers, and driver chips for various electrical appliances are
still non-core logic chips. Adopt 28~90nm process. For a long time after the lithography process
entered the process below 28 nanometers, the cost of the 16 nanometer and 14 nanometer processes
was once higher than that of 28 nanometers. Contrary to the operating law of Moore's law,
this also made the 28 nanometer process technology very cost-effective. In practical applications,
the 28-nanometer lithography machine can not only be used to produce 28-nanometer chips,
but also is expected to produce 14-nanometer, 10-nanometer, and 7-nanometer chips through
multiple exposures. Although China's independent lithography machine still has a large generation
gap with the advanced level of foreign countries, the future can be expected.
In July 2020, the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
made progress in the research of computational lithography technology. The key pattern screening
technology is the key technology that determines the speed and effect of the light source mask
optimization technology (SMO - one of the main computational lithography technologies).
The Information Optics and Optoelectronics Technology Laboratory of the Shanghai Institute
of Optics and Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences proposed a key pattern screening
technology for SMO, and cooperated with the research team of the Institute of Microelectronics
of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to conduct simulation verification using the international
mainstream commercial computational lithography software. The results show that this technology is
superior to International similar technical level. At present, the global semiconductor industry
is undergoing the third major shift marked by 5G and the Internet of Things,
which provides an opportunity for the rise of China's semiconductor industry. Industrial
transfer superimposes security needs, and the trend of localization of semiconductors is clear.
China is the world's largest chip consumer market. In 2020 alone, it imported more than 350 billion
US dollars of chips from overseas, accounting for more than 70% of the total domestic consumption of
chips that year. However, due to the continuous revision of industry rules in the United States,
it is difficult for domestic "practical" technology companies such as Huawei
to buy high-end chips even if they have money, and domestic chip manufacturers
cannot manufacture high-end chips due to the lack of EUV lithography machines.
In order to break the "blockade" of Microchip, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has concentrated
the advantageous scientific research strength of the whole academy and established a research
team for lithography machine, vowing to overcome the technical barriers of EUV lithography machine
in a short time and realize the localization of high-end chips. Fortunately, scientific research
institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences have already conquered some of the
core technologies of EUV lithography machines. With the continuous good news of domestic EUV
lithography machines, ASML began to restless. The company's CEO Peter warned the United States in
an interview with the media: If the lithography machine is not sold to China, within five years,
the Chinese will master all EUV lithography technology, and ASML will suffer huge losses!
In addition, ASML has repeatedly stated that it will accelerate its layout in the Chinese market,
strengthen cooperation with Chinese semiconductor companies, and promote the
development of China's semiconductor industry. Throughout history, we need to learn from each
other's strengths to make up for our weaknesses in order to not fail in the semiconductor industry.
With today's development in China, I believe that China can improve its own technology
and learn from the laws of history's rise and fall. One step in the field of lithography machine
to make its own core technology, no need to be stuck in the neck, now, after years of hard work,
Shanghai Microelectronics has finally broken the technical blockade of the West, developed
a lithography machine belonging to China, and has Being able to produce 28nm chips with the
largest market demand means that it will not be long before China's mid- and low-end chips can be
self-sufficient and no longer subject to foreign constraints, which is undoubtedly a big step for
domestic chips. Of course, China's lithography machine technology still has a lot of gaps
compared with the international advanced level. Top chips like 7nm and 5nm cannot be produced.
However, this is only temporary. As domestic technology companies are actively making progress,
China will surely make technological breakthroughs again, making the domestic chip industry
enter a new stage of development. That's all there is to it for today.
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