The industry generally uses ASML's lithography machine to manufacture chips, whether it is DUV or EUV, which has caused manufacturers to rush to buy. However, ASML's EUV lithography machine cannot be shipped freely, and the DUV lithography machine is also targeted by the United States.
Investigating alternatives to ASML lithography machines has become a goal in many countries. What kind of research and exploration are there? How far can ASML's lithography machine technology go?
Solutions other than ASML lithography machines
How is a chip born? What role does the lithography machine play in the chip manufacturing process? In fact, most of the chips on the market are transformed from gravel, and almost all of the first generation of semiconductor materials use silicon, and silicon is converted from ordinary gravel into silicon with a purity of about 99.9% through the action of high temperature.
Extracting silicon is only the first step, and the second step also requires pulling the silicon to form a silicon crystal column. It is then cut into silicon wafer sheets, which are generally divided into 8-inch wafers or 12-inch wafers, depending on the size of the silicon wafer.
Get the wafer, then the lithography machine needs to come in handy. Chip manufacturers use photolithography machines to expose chip patterns to the surface of wafers where photoresist is applied, similar to the exposure action of a camera.
Taking EUV extreme ultraviolet light as an example, a high-power laser is generated to bombard the target material, generating a plasma that is further reflected to the projection mask plate. The vacuum chamber of the EUV lithography machine continues to reflect the laser light source to the multilayer layer mirror, and finally the chip pattern is exposed to the silicon-based wafer in the workbench.
EUV lithography machine wavelength is 13.5nm, power, precision, density are very large, is a necessity to manufacture 7nm and below high-end chips. At present, only one company in the Netherlands ASML can manufacture, and other lithography machine manufacturers are still hovering in the field of DUV lithography machines.
But ASML's EUV lithography machine is good, and it is not something that can be bought at will. The reason is clear to everyone, ASML can not bypass the market rules, can only rely on a large number of sales of DUV lithography machine for small profits.
In this case, countries have begun to bypass ASML lithography machines and explore other solutions. For example, China's self-developed new super-resolution lithography machine and successful acceptance, the wavelength of the lithography machine is 365nm, the resolution diffraction is broken, the formation of a shorter plasma, and the wafer exposure lithography, the highest linewidth resolution can reach 22nm process.
No matter what kind of lithography machine, the process complexity is very high, at the beginning, Nikon, Canon and other old lithography machine giants are trapped in the inability to compress the wavelength of the lithography machine, resulting in limited resolution, chip manufacturing process can not go further.
Until Lin Benjian, director of the joint R&D center of the front desk TSMC, proposed the immersion lithography machine technology, allowing ASML to create a more advanced lithography machine and shorten the wavelength of the lithography machine.
Therefore, ASML can come this far, and Lin Benjian has made great contributions. Since then, ASML has benefited from the scientific research achievements of Western countries, bringing together the top scientific and technological products of various countries to ASML to help it create an EUV lithography machine, and since then it has been steadily occupying the top of the pyramid of the semiconductor industry chain.
TSMC, Samsung, Intel and other giants have to queue up to buy ASML's EUV lithography machine equipment, and forty or fifty units a year are in short supply. ASML is a microcosm of the development of human lithography technology, and it is not an exaggeration to describe ASML as the "chosen child".
How far can ASML's lithography machine technology go?
Lithography machine is the crystallization of the wisdom of all mankind, does not belong to individuals or a group, should contribute to the development of human science and technology in the global industrial chain, but some countries hinder the progress of globalization.
Therefore, countries exploring solutions other than ASML lithography machines are also for one more way out. All roads lead to Rome, and the development of science and technology also needs innovation, and only innovation can break through.
Of course, the lithography machine solutions researched and explored by various countries cannot replace ASML lithography machines in the short term, after all, ASML has been deeply engaged in the industry for decades, and has already integrated its own lithography machine products into the production lines of major manufacturers, stably exporting the chips needed for all walks of life.
It is naturally good to have innovative research, not only to have the possibility of one more choice, but also to make the future development of the chip industry traceable before the limit of Moore's Law arrives. So how far can the highly anticipated ASML lithography machine technology go? Can the limits of Moore's Law be broken?
According to the concept of Moore's Law, it is pointed out that the number of transistors that can be accommodated in the chip will double every two years, and the price will be half of the original. It is equivalent to saying that the chip performance will be higher and higher, and the price will become cheaper and cheaper.
But is that really the case? Although chip performance is still improving, TSMC, Samsung have broken through the 3nm process mass production, but the price is not cheap at all, at present, only Apple one company to order TSMC 3nm, the rest of the customers are waiting and seeing, is because the price is successfully expensive.
It is not easy to expect ASML to upgrade the lithography machine technology to reduce the cost, because the price of ASML's next-generation NA EUV lithography machine is more expensive, reaching 2.6 billion yuan / unit, which is twice that of the current EUV lithography machine.
Even if the ASML NA EUV lithography machine can break Moore's Law, it seems to be limited to 2nm to 1nm, and whether a larger chip process breakthrough can be achieved after that, I am afraid ASML does not know. How far ASML lithography machine technology can go, it will take time to give an answer.
Write at the end
Bypassing the ASML lithography machine, China's self-developed new super-resolution lithography machine was successfully accepted, which proves that ASML's lithography machine is not the only path. In fact, Japan, the United States and other countries are also studying other chip manufacturing technologies.
Such innovative research will enrich human chip technology, constantly try various possibilities, and make chip technology go further and wider.
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