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Strategies & Market Trends : World Outlook -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les H who wrote (43420)	8/30/2024 9:58:21 AM
From: Les H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50787

Key chipmaking tools are missing from China’s new self-made list of semiconductor industry challenges — lithography machines are curiously absent By Jowi Morales published July 8, 2024 The China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) recently listed the challenges the country faces in its semiconductor industry, and lithography is notably not among the listed issues. However, according to DigiTimes Asia, the exclusion of lithography is more likely a political consideration to downplay the impact of American sanctions on China's indigenous chip manufacturing rather than a local innovation that allows the Chinese to build their own lithography tools. This isn't the first time the country has disregarded lithography, as Xi Jinping told the Dutch Prime Minister that China doesn't need ASML, the leading lithography tool manufacturer, to advance its technologies. There currently is one China-based lithography tool maker — Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group (SMEE) — with another company, Naura Technology, aiming to develop its lithography tools for the first time in April 2024. However, China's domestic production rate for chip-making tools for the entire semiconductor manufacturing process is only around 20%, with domestic lithography tools comprising less than 1% (compared to ASML's 93% global market share). EUV lithography tools are crucial for building the next generation of chips, and even though a company may have acquired them before America's sanctions, they still need consistent maintenance and servicing for continuous use. However, as U.S. bans now include servicing these tools, even lithography tools already in use will eventually stop working. tomshardware.com Dutch government to ban ASML from servicing installed wafer tools in China tomshardware.com