In this episode, we take a closer look at China&#x27;s ambitious push to develop EUV lithography and ask whether this enormous national effort can realistically challenge ASML&#x27;s decades-long leadership. Watch full episode here: https://youtu.be/YiPgSm62fiM Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@AnastasiInTech LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/anastasiintech/ Newsletter https://anastasiintech.substack.com Instagram https://www.instagram.com/anastasi.in.tech/

#17 - China Built Its Own EUV Scanner. But Can It Work?

Deep In Tech

China has built its first domestic prototype of an EUV lithography machine. The national effort pulled together so many resources that many compare it to China's Manhattan Project. But one detail stood out immediately. The prototype reportedly occupies an entire factory floor. Why is it so much bigger than ASML's machine? And more importantly, how did China rebuild it without access to its most critical parts?

I started researching this expecting a story about reverse engineering. But what I found is way more interesting. As a semiconductor engineer, what surprised me most wasn't what China copied, it was what it chose to do differently. We will take this new Chinese EUV machine apart piece by piece to see which parts China rebuilt, which ones it approached differently and where it still hasn't caught up.

China's first challenge was build the one thing every EUV machine depends on – the light source. Every EUV lithography machine is essentially a giant printer. Except, instead of spraying ink onto paper, it prints microscopic circuits onto silicon wafers. And the smaller those circuits become, the shorter the wavelength of light you need.

That's why today's most advanced chips rely on 13.5 nm extreme ultraviolet light – so-called EUV light. There is just one problem. You can't buy a 13.5 nm laser. You have to build one. The solution is remarkably elegant. Every second the machine fires 50,000 microscopic tin droplets into a vacuum. A small laser flattens each droplet into a tiny disk.

Right after, a far more powerful CO2 laser hits exactly the same droplet. The tin instantly turns into plasma, reaching temperatures of around 200,000 degrees Celsius. As it cools, it emits 13.5 nm UV light.

#17 - China Built Its Own EUV Scanner. But Can It Work?

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

#17 - China Built Its Own EUV Scanner. But Can It Work?

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.