Chinese semiconductor industry

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tokenanalyst

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This Research Paper looks to have been published in 2022. It looks like they are making a huge national push in the development of LPP EUVL.

The good news is that the Wuhan Uni and Huazhong Uni Team seems to have already developed a MOPA C02 Laser of at least 27kw Laser Power.
This is similar to the Gigaphoton MOPA C02 Laser which also produces 27kw of Laser Power. The Gigaphoton EUV Light Source uses a 27Kw Laser to produce Source Power of 250W.
The current Model ASML EUVL NXT3400 uses a 30kw MOPA C02 Laser and also produces Source Power of 250W.

As we can see, everything is gradually falling into place in the development of the EUVL in China.

What really slowed down the development of the EUVL for ASML in the initial stages was the search for a powerful C02 Laser and also the development of the pre-pulse technique for the illumination of the tin droplet.

It looks like a prototype of the Chinese EUVL is not too far away. The Light Source R&D would be close to completion.
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This is basically a prototype machine, it was built in 2017 and tested for 32nm. I was envisioning something like this for low volume, advanced military chip production, way better than the much slower E-Beam lithography.

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Jianguo

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Well if SMIC plus STM and Bosch (2 European firms) really will build a fab in Chongqing as joint venture, that's would be a huge thing, not only for the fab itself, but especially for the very strong message to US.

If this happens, it will be a big political win for China...and also for European companies. If it happens, US will go berserk!
In the coming 2-3 years, China will have the entire semiconductor supply chain to >=7nm DUV and have commercialized at least 7nm EUV by 2026. There are no longer any insurmountable problems that China will not overcome within the next 5 years. China gains nothing by gifting marketshare to any Western led government, not even political. These countries pander to an extremely hostile American regime and literally fight over bragging rights of who is more anti-China.

I understand there are those who still believe that America will fall apart and their puppets gradually breaking away to have normal relations with China. Just keep in mind the mind virus that has infected the psychology and culture of these populations. It isn't simply a matter of American influence, Hollywood, social media and raw power controlling them. They are willing Stockholm Syndrome victims.

Take the example of India. China and India had mutually beneficial win-win business cooperation. Then when COVID-19 hit, India saw weakness in China and attacked in May 2020 near the height of the Wuhan/Hubei lockdown. This is exactly the same thing India did in 1962 when Nehru received intelligence reports that China was suffering during the Great Leap Forward and 3 consecutive years of bad weather and crop failure. Yes, the anti-China venom in India is 1-2 degrees more intense in India than Europe. However, the symptoms and derangement is the same disease. Just be wary of what is going on. This is simply to skim some profits from China while the getting is still good. Once the sh*t hits the fan, there will be zero political points coming from this so-called cooperation.
 

tokenanalyst

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Shenglu Communication: The company's cooperation with Huawei is mainly in the field of millimeter wave technology​


According to Weibo news, recently, an investor asked Shenglu Communication on the investor interactive platform: What is the reason why your company's satellite antenna cannot be used on Huawei Mate 50 mobile phone? Is it a technical problem, or a capacity problem, or something else?

Shenglu Communications said on the investor interaction platform on September 21 that the company’s cooperation with Huawei is mainly in the field of millimeter wave technology.

It is reported that Shenglu Communication is located in the military electronics and civil communication industries. In terms of military electronics business, the company is based on the field of microwave hybrid integrated circuits for missile-borne, airborne, shipborne and other weapon platforms. It has microwave/millimeter wave devices, components, and The comprehensive design and development, production and manufacturing capabilities of the extension system, mastering the core technology of microwave integrated circuits, can be widely used in high-tech fields such as aviation, aerospace, communication, remote sensing, telemetry, radar and electronic countermeasures.

In addition, Shenglu Communication also revealed on the investor interaction platform that Huawei mate50 series does not use the company's antenna, but the company has mature technology in the field of mobile phone antennas.

Shenglu Communication said that the company closely followed the development of the 5G industry, increased investment in research and development, and promoted the company's military active phased array radar technology, military millimeter wave chip technology and civilian 5G active phased array technology, 5G millimeter wave antenna technology. integrated development. In terms of civil communications, it has achieved breakthroughs in antenna Massive MIMO technology and the mass industrialization of Lunberg lens antennas. In terms of business model, relying on smart room sub-systems, it actively deploys IoT applications, and expands IoT integrated solutions and network operation and management services. (Proofreading/Huang Rengui)

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FairAndUnbiased

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In the coming 2-3 years, China will have the entire semiconductor supply chain to >=7nm DUV and have commercialized at least 7nm EUV by 2026. There are no longer any insurmountable problems that China will not overcome within the next 5 years. China gains nothing by gifting marketshare to any Western led government, not even political. These countries pander to an extremely hostile American regime and literally fight over bragging rights of who is more anti-China.

I understand there are those who still believe that America will fall apart and their puppets gradually breaking away to have normal relations with China. Just keep in mind the mind virus that has infected the psychology and culture of these populations. It isn't simply a matter of American influence, Hollywood, social media and raw power controlling them. They are willing Stockholm Syndrome victims.

Take the example of India. China and India had mutually beneficial win-win business cooperation. Then when COVID-19 hit, India saw weakness in China and attacked in May 2020 near the height of the Wuhan/Hubei lockdown. This is exactly the same thing India did in 1962 when Nehru received intelligence reports that China was suffering during the Great Leap Forward and 3 consecutive years of bad weather and crop failure. Yes, the anti-China venom in India is 1-2 degrees more intense in India than Europe. However, the symptoms and derangement is the same disease. Just be wary of what is going on. This is simply to skim some profits from China while the getting is still good. Once the sh*t hits the fan, there will be zero political points coming from this so-called cooperation.
Then it's good that they're investing in China, since their hard assets like equipment and facilities can be confiscated if the time comes.

The key is for them to always have more money in China than China does in reserves so that if they do an overseas asset theft like they did to Russia, they still lose more from getting their assets nationalized.
 

european_guy

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The end?

Hyper-NA after high-NA? ASML CTO Van den Brink isn’t convinced​

After decades of innovation in lithography, high-NA EUV might prove to be the end of the line, thinks ASML CTO Martin van den Brink.

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Thanks. Very interesting article, worth reading.

This is ASML CTO, the man behind EUV. He will retire in 2024, after giving light to the technical pinnacle of his career, the High-NA EUV. I can imagine the personal satisfaction of ending your career after going through many decades of huge hurdles and impossible issues to invent and build the most complex machines in the world, and finally retire after giving the to the world the biggest and the most advanced of all.

After High-NA he thinks there will not be another big step, just cost optimization and refining of current machines. This is a big statement. But if there is someone that knows what he is talking about, is this man.

Two things I noticed:

1. A new step down in wavelength (below 13.5nm EUV), isn’t an option. That has to do with angles: the efficiency with which EUV mirrors reflect light depends strongly on the angle of incidence. A step down in wavelength would change the angular range such that the lenses would simply have to become too large to compensate.

2. They needed an additional 0.5 megawatts for the stages. They use water-cooled copper wires to power them. (I guess it is to create the magnetic field to levitate and move the stages...500KW!!!!...copper wires must to be water cooled!!!!).
 

pbd456

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Interesting research on LPP EUV light sources by this team in China

Abstract

Extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) has been demonstrated to meet the industrial requirements of new-generation semiconductor fabrication. The development of high-power EUV sources is a long-term critical challenge to the implementation of EUVL in high-volume manufacturing (HVM), together with other technologies such as photoresist and mask. Historically, both theoretical studies and experiments have clearly indicated that the CO2 laser-produced plasma (LPP) system is a promising solution for EUVL source, able to realize high conversion efficiency (CE) and output power. Currently, ASML's NXE:3400B EUV scanner configuring CO2 LPP source system has been installed and operated at chipmaker customers. Meanwhile, other research teams have made different progresses in the development of LPP EUV sources. However, in their technologies, some critical areas need to be further improved to meet the requirements of 5 nm node and below. Critically needed improvements include higher laser power, stable droplet generation system and longer collector lifetime. In this paper, we describe the performance characteristics of the laser system, droplet generator and mirror collector for different EUV sources, and also the new development results.

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advancing from 2015
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The paper seems to be more like a review, isnt it?
 

tokenanalyst

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The paper seems to be more like a review, isnt it?
They're comparing and reviewing some of the existing EUV technologies, but they're also talking about things they've developed (manufactured) and things they're in the process of developing, right now, like a high power MOPA CO2 laser, different types of multilayers collecting mirrors and the tools to make them, a type of tin drop generator, ultra-high-speed sensors, etc. Basically the components of an LPP EUV light source. That's why I find it interesting. If it was just a review, I wouldn't have posted it.
 

FairAndUnbiased

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Thanks. Very interesting article, worth reading.

This is ASML CTO, the man behind EUV. He will retire in 2024, after giving light to the technical pinnacle of his career, the High-NA EUV. I can imagine the personal satisfaction of ending your career after going through many decades of huge hurdles and impossible issues to invent and build the most complex machines in the world, and finally retire after giving the to the world the biggest and the most advanced of all.

After High-NA he thinks there will not be another big step, just cost optimization and refining of current machines. This is a big statement. But if there is someone that knows what he is talking about, is this man.

Two things I noticed:

1. A new step down in wavelength (below 13.5nm EUV), isn’t an option. That has to do with angles: the efficiency with which EUV mirrors reflect light depends strongly on the angle of incidence. A step down in wavelength would change the angular range such that the lenses would simply have to become too large to compensate.

2. They needed an additional 0.5 megawatts for the stages. They use water-cooled copper wires to power them. (I guess it is to create the magnetic field to levitate and move the stages...500KW!!!!...copper wires must to be water cooled!!!!).
13.5 nm is already sufficient for CD in the 40-50 nm range. Anything around that range wouldn't be too bad. At EUV energies the consideration shouldn't be wavelength, since it is already comparable to typical CD in an IC. Other considerations should be things like source power, propagation through medium, ease of optics manufacturing, etc. The goal is to minimize things like vacuum requirements, lower photopolymerization, increased resist absorption cross section, etc.

What I do know is that immersion lithography is at it's limit. Liquid water starts absorbing VUV wavelengths at around 7 eV (180 nm), very close to the 193 nm of ArF.

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So ArF is not going any further. All refinements will be small. This gives Chinese manufacturers an important chance to catch up outside EUV for lower end lower cost equipment.
 
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