For a long time, China's lithography technology has lagged behind advanced countries, which has become a shortcoming in the process of industrial modernization in China. In 2006, the Ministry of Science and Technology put forward a long-term plan for lithography technology, hoping that the State Key Laboratory of Chinese Academy of Sciences could find a way of lithography with independent intellectual property rights and bypass foreign technical barriers. The SP optical mask mask aligner of the Institute of Photoelectricity bypasses the traditional technical route of 193 nm exposure, and the pattern with resolution exceeding the diffraction limit can also be obtained by using a long-wavelength light source, so the cost and safety will be greatly improved, and it is an original technology with complete intellectual property rights.
As I have known before, mask aligner is the mother machine for manufacturing computer CPU, and it is at the top level in the field of science and technology. At present, the advanced mask aligner in the world is basically monopolized by Dutch ASML company. The most advanced CPU chip technology is 14 nm, which is not sold to China. The slightly outdated mask aligner company sold it to China company, and it is not allowed to be used to manufacture CPU chips independently developed like Loongson. Neither the United States nor Japan can do anything in this regard. Chengdu is too powerful.
In terms of technology, ASML mask aligner can use extreme ultraviolet light (EUV) with wavelengths of 14 nm, 10 nm and 7 nm to produce chips with 9 nm, 8 nm, 6 nm, 5 nm, 4 nm or even 3 nm processes. It is reported that TSMC purchased two NXE 3300B from ASML (later upgraded to the same technical level as NXE 3350B with the help of ASML), Samsung also purchased EUV equipment, NXE 3350B and the latest NXE3400 mask aligner from ASML, and Intel also purchased several NXE 3350B. In addition, NXE 3350B EUV extreme ultraviolet lithography machine is mainly used for 7nm correlation test and trial production. In April this year, TSMC began to process its 7nm process chip products, Samsung recently launched 8nm process products, and Intel may produce 10nm process products. It can be seen that ASML's EUV mask aligner has become the basis and key for them to quickly realize the mass production plan of lower nanometer technology. No matter how Samsung, Intel and TSMC compete around specific technology, ASML is the biggest overlord and winner, because none of them can do without his EUV mask aligner.