Tech war: China advances in chip tool self-sufficiency but lithography still a ‘choke point’
- There is an unwritten rule in China’s semiconductor factories that says locally-made equipment should comprise at least 70 per cent of their production lines
US export restrictions on China’s access to advanced chips and technologies have supercharged local efforts to replace foreign chip-making tools but bottlenecks remain, industry insiders and analysts said.
Top Chinese tool makers such as Naura Technology and Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment (AMEC) are leading a push for local chip foundries to “use first and fine-tune later” when it comes to domestic equipment.
There is even an unwritten rule in China’s semiconductor wafer fabs that says locally-made tools should comprise at least 70 per cent of their production lines, according to multiple industry insiders.
After Washington imposed restrictions on the export of advanced chip making technologies, China’s leading chip makers began to shift their focus from chasing the leading edge to ramping up production capacity for legacy chips for cars and home appliances – and significant progress is being made.
“The Chinese semiconductor tool sector has made great strides since the October 2022 US export control package,” said Paul Triolo, senior vice-president for China and technology policy lead at Albright Stonebridge Group, a Washington-based consulting firm. “This is the result of greater vertical integration among tool makers, greater integration with front-end manufacturers, and much more collaboration across the entire industry supply chain.”
Some industry veterans have become increasingly confident talking about self-sufficiency. Gerald Yin Zhiyao, chairman and CEO of Shanghai-listed AMEC, said China could be on the verge of reaching a basic level of self-sufficiency in chip-making tools this summer, something that seemed unlikely just a couple of years ago.
