Is the lithography machine limited again? Where will domestic chips go? Just now, another bad news came from the domestic chip manufacturing industry: Lao America once again put pressure on the lithography machine manufacturer ASML and blocked ASML from exporting lithography mach

lithography machine is restricted again? Where will domestic chips go?

Just now, another piece of bad news came from the domestic chip manufacturing industry: the United States once again put pressure on the lithography machine manufacturer ASML and blocked ASML from exporting lithography machines to China. Moreover, this time it is not only the most advanced lithography equipment, but also the previous generation DUV lithography machine, whose manufacturing capacity can produce chips with up to 7nm process.

EUV lithography machines used to manufacture 5nm and below process chips were banned by the United States as early as two years ago.

In order to restrict the development of domestic chips, actions are being continued

According to the latest news released by Bloomberg, the most "free" country hopes that ASML, the world's largest lithography machine manufacturer, will ban the export of lithography machines to China. The equipment involved this time, including old DUV lithography machines, can only produce chips with a maximum 7nm process.

But if the news is true, it also means a comprehensive containment of China’s chip industry. Because the current domestic chip manufacturing process that can be independently manufactured is still stuck at 28nm. Moreover, the photolithography machines that can support chip manufacturing for this process have not yet been mass-produced.

Without a photolithography machine, there is no need to design chips?

There are many similar voices on the Internet, such as: "Now that we can't produce chips independently in China, why are we still developing chips?", "Chip design is a complete waste of money, because we can't produce it domestically, and in the end we can only hand over production to foreign countries or companies." Taiwan and other manufacturers.”

However, these views are one-sided. Because the birth of a chip needs to go through the stages of design, research and development, production, testing, etc., although all of them are indispensable, if all chip research and development is abandoned just because it cannot be produced, then even if the manufacturing process of high-precision chips is mastered in the future, Design and R&D technology cannot keep up.

chip design and development, domestic manufacturers are working hard

When it comes to chips, it is natural to mention mobile phones, because mobile phones are one of the most sophisticated digital products. A small mobile phone contains hundreds of chips for different purposes. In order to accelerate the self-research of domestic chips, domestic mobile phone manufacturers are also working hard.

In the past five years, Xiaomi 's Yangtze River Industry Foundation has invested in more than 100 semiconductor-related companies and enterprises. It shoulders the important task of building a domestic semiconductor supply chain and supporting domestic semiconductor companies.

Of course, in addition to investing in and supporting the semiconductor industry, Xiaomi has also been committed to the independent research and development of , the mobile phone chip. Since 2014, Xiaomi has begun to polish its self-developed chips. For The Paper S1 , Xiaomi spent nearly four years in research and development, with a total investment of nearly one billion. In 2017, it released the The Paper S1 self-developed SoC chip.

Four years later, Xiaomi released ThePaper C1 professional imaging chip and ThePaper P1 fast charging chip. Recently, it also released the new ThePaper G1 battery management chip and realized full-link self-research of mobile phone fast charging technology.

I believe that after seeing this, some "cynical" people will stand up and say: What are these chips? Not worth mentioning at all!

However, you can’t reach a thousand miles without taking small steps. As Dr. Zuo Kunlong, Xiaomi's chip architect, said: "Xiaomi's ultimate goal will be to return to the research and development of Soc chip , the heart device of mobile phones."

I believe that the future of domestic chips must be bright.