Recently, the only equipment manufacturer in the world that can produce EUV lithography machines, Roger Dassen, the chief financial officer of ASML in the Netherlands, said in the third quarter financial report: ASML can be used without a US license Exporting DUV (deep ultraviolet) lithography machines from the Netherlands to China, but when it comes to sending goods or parts directly from the United States to customers, you still need to apply for a license.
We probably understand the previous sentence. Although the DUV lithography machine is the previous generation technology product, it covers the 96nm-7nm chip process. If we can smoothly provide us with production line equipment support, this will of course be very exciting good news.
However, the author is temporarily unable to clearly understand the latter sentence.
if the relevant systems or parts are exported from the United States, the equipment still needs to be licensed by the United States. The translation of
is: if the relevant system or component is exported from the United States, the equipment still needs to be licensed by the United States.
I think it's probably because the CFO of ASML is too full for himself, so let's do some buffering to make up.
DUV lithography machine also uses a lot of American technology
ASML's market share in 1994 was only 18%. Its main opponents are Japan's Nikon and Canon.
In 1997, Intel and the U.S. Energy Agency jointly initiated the establishment of EUV LLC, which brought together the top US research resources and chip giants, including Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratory. , In conjunction with Motorola, AMD and other companies, gather hundreds of top scientists to jointly research EUV lithography technology.
ASML, in order to obtain American technology, wrote a guarantee: 55% of parts and components will be purchased from American suppliers, and they will actively accept regular inspections by the United States. This is a major turning point in the pattern of world lithography machines.
not only injected capital into ASML, but also injected a lot of technology. ASML was allowed to acquire companies such as Silicon Valley Group, a leading American mask technology leader, Brion, a US lithography inspection and solution player, and Cymer, a leading US UV light source leader. ASML has incorporated many American technologies. We all know what happened after
: In 2010, ASML launched the first EUV lithography machine NXE: 3100. Since then, ASML has become the only manufacturer in the world that can design and manufacture EUV lithography equipment, and has become the exclusive monopoly in the ultra-high-end market. How does
DUV lithography machine bypass the threshold of American technology ? ASML's finance did not give us much explanation. In the 4G era, Dutch telecom KPN, a model of cooperation with Huawei, chose Ericsson
KPN, a Dutch telecom company with about 34% of the market share, in the 5G era. In the 4G era, it has maintained a fruitful relationship with Huawei.
In 2014, Huawei won the contract to provide KPN 2G, 3G and 4G core network construction. Moreover, KPN also used Huawei's software to replace the traditional CRM and billing system, making it a classic success case for Huawei.
But even so, the Dutch telecom operators still have not withstood the pressure of the United States and can only choose Ericsson as the infrastructure provider for their 5G core network. This is a five-year agreement. Ericsson has agreed to provide its dual-mode 5G core software to major Dutch telecommunications companies, which will form the backbone of KPN 5G Standalone (SA) products and provide integration and support services.
This shows that the Netherlands' ability to withstand pressure still cannot be too hopeful. Z17z2019 SMIC purchased an EUV lithography machine from ASML, but it has not received the goods due to well-known reasons.
In the Jinhua incident, ASML did not give up business ethics after the US manufacturer resolutely withdrew.
In October 2018, after a ban, Jinhua was listed as an exportIn the control list, after 30 days, American equipment, materials and other suppliers were completely withdrawn, including machine installation, production assistance and other actions were immediately stopped. After that, even non-US suppliers were also withdrawn. The entire 12-inch factory Presents a suspended state.
, on the contrary, is that the lithography machine giant ASML has not withdrawn as rumored, and is still silently supporting it. It upholds the business ethics of well-known European companies in our memory. ASML said at the time that it would comply with various regulatory requirements. Support customers normally.
In the past 20 years, ASML has developed rapidly in China. Currently, ASML has installed more than 700 lithography machines in China, and almost all major chip manufacturers have ASML services.
According to the financial report released by ASML, the net sales of ASML lithography machines reached 3.1 billion euros in the third quarter of 2020, and the Chinese mainland market accounted for 21%.
In May of this year, ASML and Wuxi High-tech Zone signed a strategic cooperation agreement to expand and upgrade the ASML lithography equipment technical service (Wuxi) base in Wuxi High-tech Zone. Prior to this, ASML has opened branches in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuxi and other places to provide customers with services and consulting. Among them, Shenzhen is ASML's largest software R&D center in Asia.
There is no doubt that ASML is the most exemplary beneficiary of the globalization of science and technology. The lithography machine brings together many advanced technologies in the world, such as precision optics, precision motion, and high-precision environmental control. ASML suppliers also have enterprises from mainland China. . The commercial sincerity of ASML should be beyond doubt. The importance of the
lithography machine is well known. The road to independent development is the
lithography machine that we must experience. The
lithography machine has the highest complexity, the highest precision, and the highest single price among all semiconductor equipment. It is also a master of modern industry. It can be said that semiconductor equipment with an annual output value of tens of billions of dollars supports the semiconductor manufacturing industry with an annual output value of hundreds of billions of dollars, and ASML almost dominates the entire high-end lithography equipment market.
, especially the EUV lithography machine, as SMIC approaches the 7nm process, without EUV technology and domestic chip manufacturing, it will not be able to form a breakthrough in advanced technology in the future. EUV lithography machine is the key to continuation of Moore's Law and the optimal solution at this stage, and there is huge room for improvement. EUV is the product of multi-party top R&D cooperation, with extremely high technical barriers, and short-term localization may be extremely low.
At present, various blockings aimed at us in the semiconductor field are actually boosting the independence and development of my country's semiconductor industry. In the huge semiconductor supply chain, we have more than 1,000 emerging semiconductor-related companies. In 2019, in an atmosphere of technological de-globalization, the mainland's wafer market still ranks second in the world with 22%. As the core equipment in the manufacturing process of integrated circuits, lithography machines play a vital role. Chip manufacturers must purchase lithography machines from ASML if they want to improve the process. The world’s well-known chip manufacturers Intel, Samsung, Hai Lux, TSMC, UMC, and GF are all ASML customers.
We must have our own lithography machine, or we must have an independent lithography technology that can check and balance the external domain and can arbitrarily implement technological blocking.
Conclusion
Under the current situation, it is imperative to realize the domestic substitution of lithography machines, which is of great strategic significance. In the 02 special lithography machine project, it is set to accept the 193nm ArF immersion DUV lithography machine in December 2020, and its process technology can cover more than 28nm. Considering that this project is the goal of the 13th Five-Year Plan and has greater clarity in the future, combined with the performance and technical advantages of 28nm as the current key technology node, we hope that our domestic lithography function will break the complete monopoly of foreign giants as soon as possible, and achieve 0 to 1 breakthrough.
