People often ask: “Why doesn’t China just make its own photolithography tools?”
The short answer — because it’s unbelievably hard.
Even China’s top engineers have struggled. One story claims that after disassembling an ASML DUV (Deep Ultraviolet) machine to study it, they couldn’t reassemble it — and reportedly had to call ASML to fix it.
Here’s why 👇
🔬 The 193nm Immersion Challenge
Modern immersion DUV scanners use 193nm light passed through a thin water layer onto silicon wafers, keeping alignment across 300mm surfaces at atomic precision. Every component — optics, sensors, mechanics — is factory-tuned and locked.
ASML’s TWINSCAN systems rely on:
- ZEISS projection optics accurate to a few nanometers
- Dual-stage wafer mechanics with closed-loop feedback
- Metrology frames that maintain alignment between stages, sensors, and optics
Even a tiny dust particle or interferometer offset can ruin calibration. Putting one back together requires proprietary procedures, software keys, and vendor-level alignment equipment.
🏭 China’s Plan B: Stretch DUV and Build Domestic Tools
Chinese foundry SMIC is testing an immersion DUV scanner from Yuliangsheng, targeting 28nm nodes and pushing toward 7nm via multi-patterning. Broader fab rollout may come by 2027, but it’s comparable to older ASML DUV machines — meaning yields and precision will take time to mature.
💸 Why EUV Is Almost Impossible to Replicate
Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, used for sub-5nm chips, took billions in U.S. and Dutch funding and decades of R&D. Even Japan — once the world leader in lithography — failed to complete an EUV system despite leading early in the 2000s.
EUV operates near the physical limit of light-based chipmaking. Future gains will likely be incremental, not revolutionary.
🚫 Export Controls Tighten the Squeeze
The Netherlands banned exports of ASML’s NXT:2050i and 2100i DUV systems to China from January 2024, later extending license requirements to NXT:1970i and 1980i. Even servicing and spare parts now require approval.
⚙️ Bottom Line
China’s engineers are brilliant — and they will catch up eventually — but EUV is the single most complex industrial machine ever built.
It combines optics, plasma physics, precision mechanics, and quantum-level metrology in a way that even the world’s most advanced nations can barely sustain.
For now, ASML stands alone, and China’s path to self-sufficiency in cutting-edge lithography remains one of the hardest technological climbs in history.
