The mechanism is all in vain. The Americans never expected that in the semiconductor industry, a series of "stuck" strategies such as scientific and technological blockade and trade restrictions on the mainland for several years did not make us succumb, but stimulated China's independent research and development of science and technology.
The rapid rise of lithography machine technology, 7nm victory is in sight, 5nm will also make a breakthrough, we are behind the development of the world's semiconductor industry for 30 years, and will also make up for it.
So what role will this lithography machine breakthrough play in the development of the mainland semiconductor industry, and why did we miss the development opportunity?
Lithography machine technology
Today's strategic highland of science and technology is the semiconductor industry, and the reason why the United States provoked the "semiconductor war" against us is entirely to enjoy the dividends of science and technology, and the core of the semiconductor industry chain is the precision equipment for manufacturing chips - lithography machine.
The function of the lithography machine is to engrave the designed circuit pattern onto the wafer board through the light source. How high the accuracy of it is is equivalent to hanging a knife on the wing of an airplane, dipping rice grains on the wings of an airplane, and using a knife to engrave words on the rice grains while the two airplanes are neck and neck.
The advanced manufacturers in the world today that have the ability to produce lithography machines include ASML in the Netherlands and Nikon Canon in Japan, while ASML is actually controlled by the United States, not to mention the relationship between Japan and the United States.
But to fight the snake is to hit seven inches, attack the difficult point, since we can't buy a lithography machine, then independent research and development. To be precise, the real acceleration stage of the independent research and development of mainland lithography machines was after the ZTE incident in 2019 after the US Department of Commerce issued a ban.
The difficulty of the mainland lithography machine industry at that time was mainly that the first extreme ultraviolet light source, itself ultraviolet light source is not easy to be gathered, can only be emitted through the reflective mirror, and the emission will lose 3 percent, and the lithography machine requires a small system, high power and stable light source, which the United States has always mastered the mature technology, and other countries are purchased from it.
The second mirror surface is the only way to focus and calibrate the light with a high-precision and high-smoothness lens, so that the light can be accurately and unmistakably illuminated on the silicon wafer to draw tiny patterns. At present, the manufacturers that can meet the lens standards required by lithography machines are also in Germany.
In addition, most of the composite materials, photoresists, and high-purity chemicals used in chips are also patented in Japan. To put it simply, a lithography machine is a high-end microelectronic processing equipment.
Even if you know how it works, a leading technology company like ASML in the Netherlands that manufactures lithography machines needs to import more than 100,000 parts from more than 5,000 suppliers around the world, in addition to core components, most of which are American companies.
Not only that, all the mid-to-high-end silicon wafers used in semiconductor manufacturing are temporarily required to be imported. However, it is under heavy pressure that our researchers continue to make breakthroughs.
It is said that the fourth-generation lithography machine technology can theoretically achieve the 7nm node process, but due to the large number of masks required, it is still difficult to mass produce it temporarily.
Although there is still a certain gap between such achievements and the world-class level (below 5nm), it is not easy for us to come to this point under the condition of limited global industrial chain, not to mention that it is of greater significance to achieve 28nm autonomy breakthrough at present.
Because Ni Guangnan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, once said that the 28nm domestic chip system is enough to alleviate the dilemma. Although high-end chips with 5nm or even smaller process nodes can bring extreme performance with higher speed and less energy consumption.
However, now in a series of industries such as the Internet of Things, industrial control, and electronic consumption, they must rely on the development of 28nm chips, which means that 28nm chips are mature and have a wide range of applicable scenarios.
It is estimated that by 2027, the mainland's demand for the 28nm chip market will reach 10.4 billion US dollars, and according to relevant information, CETC's subsidiaries have achieved full coverage of the 28nm process of ion implanters, and the performance has reached the international mainstream level.
It is important to know that ion implantation equipment is also a very important part of semiconductor device manufacturing, and this breakthrough is very important for the development of 28nm chips in China.
When we achieve independent production of 28nm process chips, we will reduce our dependence on imported chips, and with the increasing degree of localization, the production cost will be reduced accordingly, and perhaps in the future international chip market, we can also manufacture competitiveness.
Missed 30 years
From a practical point of view, our country does have a certain gap with the world's leading level in semiconductor technology, after all, others developed early, and we are indeed 30 years late in this science and technology strategy because of the "trade and industry" route.
Also taking the lithography machine as an example, as early as 1985, the mainland developed a step-by-step lithography machine prototype, at that time the level was only 7 years away from the world's first-class, but since the 90s, the mainland began to buy lithography machines from abroad, at the same time, the Netherlands, Japan and other lithography machine companies rose rapidly and expanded.
On the other hand, although our country was a member of globalization at that time, it was not possible to produce all technical products by itself under many constraints, and it was true that we temporarily focused our energy on technology research and development that could be mastered and produced in a short period of time.
The United States is the country that invented chips, and it has deep technical accumulation and innovative talents in the field of chips, and the technology is very mature.
In addition, considering the complexity of the semiconductor industry chain and the dispersion of key technologies to various countries, it is difficult to fully grasp them, but chips are very important and need to be used in almost all industrial fields, so we chose to take the route of "trade and industry".
This led to a certain degree of clamping by the United States in the development of the semiconductor industry in the later stage. It can be said that any kind of material or equipment in the upstream of the semiconductor industry chain, even a single accessory can become a means of restriction.
However, it is precisely under the "step-by-step" of the United States that we really see the importance of independent research and development and innovation, and now our development in science and technology not only surprises the Chinese people, but also shocks the world.
From two bombs and one satellite, satellites, GPS, aerospace, semiconductors and other fields, we have launched alternative independent systems, such as China's independent Beidou system, which has served users in more than 200 countries and regions around the world, and uses the Beidou system to locate more than 360 billion times a day, as a latecomer to Beidou has surpassed products of the same level.
At last
Everything is only a matter of time, we have made a lot of progress in photoresist, radio frequency chips, ultra-precision polishing processes and other chip technologies related to "stuck neck", although the lithography machine due to the high integration difficulty, temporarily did not achieve a particularly large transcendence, but Chinese researchers have been in continuous efforts.
For the semiconductor industry, localization must be a long-term development plan in the future, with the continuous expansion of domestic semiconductor manufacturing and production capacity, it will surely drive domestic technology and market breakthroughs. Any country that wants to "stuck" and threaten China has never succeeded, and cannot succeed.