Because photolithography is through the surface of the wafer after the gel, the template on the graphic moved to the photoresist, this process can be a device or circuit structure copied to the wafer, is a core process of chip manufacturing, the world's only Dutch ASML manufacturers can do.

The use of chip driven lithography market

The Netherlands, the big factory asml is mainly in the do photolithography vendors, this photolithography is one of the core steps in the chip manufacturing, and photolithography there are several major classifications, which are used for chip production lithography is greatly sought after by vendors, there are also some are used for encapsulation, used in the field of LED Projection in the field of manufacturing, asml this manufacturer is the chip production in the photolithography leader, occupies 80% of the market share.

Currently the world's annual production of up to tens of billions of chips, and these chips were used in cell phones, computers and other smart devices, in the future will be more broadly used in various fields, and the principle of production of these chips are basically through the exposure of the development of manufacturing production, and the process of developing photos is very similar to that of the past, so in the process of manufacturing the chip must have a projected Circuit group of micro-imaging machine, but in the past few decades the most advanced micro-imaging machine wavelength need 193 nanometers, but the latest chip production can be less than 10 nanometers, which is like what we see on the Internet, with a pencil lead to do the same as micro-engraving.

ASML technology monopoly, ultra-high price is still a machine hard to find

And now the world in the field of light guest machine, in addition to the Netherlands, in addition to the asml manufacturers, Canon and Nikon and other optical manufacturers are also slightly involved in the field of light guest machine, but Canon and Nikon is only in the initial stage, is not yet able to do with the Dutch manufacturers of machines to compete, so in the The field of asml has always been in a state of technological monopoly, the latest light guest machine unit price has exceeded 100 million U.S. dollars, but the photolithography machine produced by Nikon is only asml one of the three, but even such a cheap price, in terms of sales are simply not as good as asml, the manufacturer's orders have been booked to next year.

Because manufacturers with this demand, naturally they don't mind spending more money on products with better results, but the only way to make chips below 10 nanometers is through euv technology, so in the current market of the industry, asml has no rivals at all, and its technology creates a monopoly that leads to such a high selling price for its lithography machines. Our domestic center international has ordered a light guest machine, the unit price of the selling price has been as high as 120 million U.S. dollars, although the price is very expensive, but within our industry has such a machine, means that in the future we in the lack of high-precision chip production can be quickly made up.

Domestic technology to catch up, self-sufficiency is just around the corner

In fact, our domestic production of photolithography, in 16 years when Tsinghua University, combined with Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Shanghai Microelectronics Equipment Company, three units completed the system prototype acceptance of the photolithography machine, which represents our country has become the world's few countries can develop photolithography machine. This means that China has become one of the few countries in the world that can develop photolithography, and now Shanghai Microelectronics has completed the delivery of the 100th domestic photolithography. This technology breaks through the constraints of the past and marks a new breakthrough in our euv optical imaging technology.

Future, with the level of China's technology to improve, I believe that in the near future, perhaps our country can use their own production of photolithography to carry out chip research and development, but this is only a beautiful vision, at present, although we are in the field of photolithography actively catching up with foreign technology, but in the level of the gap is still very huge.

Currently we have mastered the initial technology, but the subsequent development also needs more experience accumulation, now in the international market wafer processing equipment, lithography investment ratio has been as high as 30%, and an amsl euv lithography price is as high as hundreds of millions of dollars, if in the future, our state-owned enterprises can have the ability to participate in the international competition, then our chip to catch up with international The level is just around the corner.