China's chipmaking capabilities are advancing rapidly. A domestic company recently developed the country's first commercial electron beam lithography (EBL) device.
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China has long been considered a laggard in semiconductor lithography due to its lack of access to ASML's cutting-edge equipment, which is considered the 'last resort' for advanced chip manufacturing. While efforts have been made to develop EUV technology on its own, it is a long-term story.
According to the South China Morning Post, researchers at Zhejiang University (Hangzhou) have announced an important milestone: the development of the first electron beam lithography machine, named Xizhi .
Advantages and disadvantages of Xizhi:
- Accuracy: reaches 0.6nm – close to ASML's High-NA EUV technology.
- Limitations: extremely slow processing speed, due to the 'dot-by-dot' mechanism which can take hours to create a wafer.
This means Xizhi is suitable for research and development (R&D), helping China narrow the technology gap with the West, but not feasible for mass production.
Currently, China still relies mainly on DUV machines to produce general-purpose chips. The emergence of EBL technology could become a springboard for the prototyping of advanced chip lines, paving the way for the future of domestic semiconductors.
While still years behind the US in manufacturing capacity, the gap is narrowing, and EBL could become a key piece in China's semiconductor ambitions.