Chinese company exhibits ‘in-house developed’ semiconductor exposure technology amid US sanctions

At a time when China is emphasizing self-reliance and self-reliance in response to the United States' export controls on cutting-edge semiconductor equipment, a Chinese company announced that it has introduced a model of next-generation exposure equipment.

According to the social media of the Chinese company Shanghai Micro Electronic Equipment (SMEE) on the 9th (local time), the company said that it exhibited the 'next-generation pre-process dry exposure equipment general-purpose technology platform model' developed by its own R&D at the 9th China International Import Expo held on the 5th to 10th.

At the same time, he claimed that this is an example showing China's achievements in becoming independent in the entire process exposure equipment.

The company said that it can independently control the industrial chain of key elements, including high-precision objective lenses and lighting systems, and has stable process application capabilities and reliability of operation on the production line.

He also said, “The shape performance of the current Chinese-made pre-process dry exposure equipment is already similar to that of international leading products, and the overlap precision and production efficiency are closely following international standards.”

The company said, "Several facilities have already been operating stably for a long time in the mass production of major logic and memory semiconductors in China," and that it had processed more than 10 million wafers in total and the effective operation rate of the facilities exceeded 92%.

He went on to claim that through this, we have an advantage in independent technology control, local replacement of imported equipment, and reliability of industrial network security, and "we are now able to fully support the development demands of the semiconductor industry."

The company explained that they are the only company in China that can stably mass-produce all-process dry exposure equipment, and that their work includes design, R&D, production, sales, and technical service of core exposure equipment.

Amid the intensifying technological competition between the United States and China, the United States, along with allies such as the Netherlands, is restricting the export of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment and some advanced deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography equipment to China, which is considered the biggest obstacle to the development of China's semiconductor industry.

Accordingly, China is focusing on the development of semiconductor equipment at the national level, and attention is also focused on announcements related to exposure equipment by Chinese companies.

Last month, another Chinese company, Langdaosuiyan (朗道燧岩), attracted attention by introducing a prototype of the 'light source system', a key component of EUV lithography equipment, at an expo.