With the delivery of domestic lithography machines, a new situation in the chip industry will appear, and where is China's scientific and technological strength going?
Recently, an exciting news came - China's first self-developed high-end packaging lithography machine has been delivered. This marks a historic breakthrough in the field of integrated circuit manufacturing and a big step towards the goal of independent and controllable chip industry. As a key equipment for chip manufacturing, the lithography machine has been monopolized by foreign countries for a long time, and the mainland's scientific and technological personnel have finally overcome this technical difficulty through unremitting efforts.
The lithography machine is important because it is an indispensable and critical piece of equipment in the chip manufacturing process. In the chip manufacturing process, the circuit pattern of the chip needs to be accurately transferred to the surface of the silicon wafer. The lithography machine is used to complete this precision transfer process. It uses photolithography technology to accurately expose the mask of the circuit pattern to the photoresist layer of the silicon wafer, and then dissolve the unexposed with a chemical solution to form a circuit pattern consistent with the mask on the silicon wafer.
The lithography machine is like a "printing machine" for chip manufacturing, and the higher its resolution, the more advanced the chip can be manufactured. At present, the resolution of domestic lithography machines has reached 7 nanometers, which can be used to manufacture medium and high-end chips such as mobile phone chips. The achievement of this achievement is inseparable from the unremitting efforts of the mainland's scientific and technological personnel for many years.
Looking back on history, lithography machine technology has been monopolized by foreign countries for a long time, and the mainland chip industry has been controlled by others. In order to achieve independent control, Continental has started independent research and development of lithography machines since the 90s of the 20th century. After several generations of scientific researchers, a breakthrough was finally made in 2022 and a 7nm high-end lithography machine was developed.
The advent of this lithography machine not only broke the technical blockade of foreign countries on the mainland chip industry, but more importantly, enhanced the confidence of the mainland's chip independent innovation. With independent and controllable chip manufacturing capabilities, the mainland's information technology industry can truly "start from the core" and achieve independent and controllable in key areas.
We must also be soberly aware that despite the breakthroughs, there is still a gap between the mainland chip industry and the international advanced level. The resolution of 7 nanometers is not advanced in the world, and the current international leading level is 3 nanometers or even 2 nanometers. We must not stop there, we must continue to increase investment, continue to innovate, and constantly narrow the gap with the international advanced level.
The advent of domestic lithography machines will undoubtedly inject new impetus into the development of the mainland's chip industry. As a key equipment for chip manufacturing, the localization of lithography machine is conducive to breaking the technical blockade of foreign countries on the mainland chip industry on the one hand, and on the other hand, it will also promote the comprehensive development of the domestic chip industry chain.
In recent years, with the vigorous development of the domestic information technology industry, the demand for chips is increasing day by day. Due to the long-term control of others, the mainland chip industry has been in a situation of passive beating. Especially in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, 5G communications, and big data, the shortage of chips has seriously restricted the development of mainland industries.
With independent and controllable chip manufacturing capabilities, the development of mainland in these fields will clear a major obstacle. Taking Huawei as an example, as a leading enterprise in the domestic chip industry, it has been promoting the localization process of chips. According to reports, Huawei has begun to use domestic lithography machines to produce chips to empower localization.
Not only that, the advent of domestic lithography machines will also promote the coordinated development of the domestic chip industry chain. The chip industry chain is very large, and in addition to lithography machines, a large number of upstream equipment and materials are also needed. Once the chip manufacturing capacity is improved, the demand for upstream equipment and materials will also increase, thereby driving the development of the entire industrial chain.
We must also be soberly aware that despite the breakthroughs, there is still a long way to go for the mainland chip industry to be independent and controllable. At present, the resolution of domestic lithography machines is only 7 nanometers, which is still a certain gap compared with the international advanced level. We must continue to invest and innovate to close this gap.
The advent of domestic lithography machine not only marks a historic breakthrough in the mainland's chip industry, but also reflects the continuous enhancement of the mainland's scientific and technological strength. Looking back at history, the mainland has long been seriously constrained by Western countries in the field of key technologies. With the continuous deepening of reform and opening up, the mainland's scientific and technological undertakings have made rapid development and have made remarkable achievements in many fields.
Taking the aerospace field as an example, the mainland has become one of the few countries in the world that can independently develop carrier rockets and manned spacecraft. A series of major scientific and technological achievements, such as the Shenzhou series of spacecraft, the Tiangong series of space stations, and the Chang'e series of probes, have fully demonstrated the development strength of the mainland's aerospace industry.
In the field of quantum technology, the mainland is also in a leading position in the world. In 2016, the mainland successfully launched the world's first quantum science experiment satellite "Micius", marking the entry of quantum communication into the space age. In 2020, the mainland realized the operation of the quantum computer "Zu Chongzhi" system, with a computing power of 76 qubits, setting a new world record at that time.
The advent of domestic lithography machines once again confirms the continuous enhancement of the mainland's scientific and technological strength. We must also be soberly aware that compared with developed countries, the gap between the mainland and the developed countries in key core technology fields still exists. In order to achieve self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology, we must further increase investment in scientific research, continue to promote independent innovation, and constantly break through the "stuck neck" technology, so as to truly grasp the initiative in scientific and technological development.
The advent of domestic lithography machine marks a key step for the mainland chip industry and lays a solid foundation for the realization of independent and controllable. But we must also be soberly aware that this is just the beginning. In order to achieve the comprehensive independence and controllability of the chip industry, we also need to continue to make efforts in talent training, capital investment, industrial chain construction, etc., constantly break through technical bottlenecks, and narrow the gap with the international advanced level. Only in this way can the mainland's scientific and technological strength truly become strong and contribute to the realization of the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.