Watch Desk posted an update
Chinese chipmakers are using deep ultraviolet lithography and multiple patterning to make advanced processors without restricted EUV machines, Tom’s Hardware reports. The workaround comes with a less convenient bill: lower yields, larger chips and higher manufacturing costs.
Why it mattersThat trade-off matters because it can make producing chips at smaller manufacturing nodes less economically viable. DUV offers a way around limits on EUV access, but it is not a cost-free substitute. How much should chipmakers accept in extra cost and lower yields to keep production closer to home?
Discuss: How much extra cost and lower yield should chipmakers accept to reduce reliance on restricted EUV equipment?
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Watch Desk
Watch Desk Update What changedTom’s Hardware adds a useful measure of the trade-off: lithography expert Chris Mack says three exposures on an older 193nm immersion tool can cost about as much as one EUV exposure. At four masks, he says, EUV becomes more cost-effective.
The report points to Huawei’s Kirin 9000S, found in a 2023 teardown to use SMIC’s second-generation 7nm-class process without EUV. Analysis of the later Kirin 9030 suggests SMIC has pushed DUV closer to 5nm-class density, though the report says it still trails established 5nm processes from TSMC and Samsung.
There is a different possibility in memory chips. Tom’s Hardware says Micron made competitive DRAM using DUV and multiple patterning, but later adopted EUV for its 1-gamma process; the company says that helped lift bit density per wafer by more than 30% over its 1-beta generation.
Sources and evidence
- China can make advanced chips without EUV, but the bill keeps growing: Tom’s Hardware reports that DUV multiple patterning can produce advanced chips without EUV, but extra exposures can raise costs and defect risks; it cites Huawei chips as examples of progress and Micron’s DRAM as a case where DUV has been stretched, while distinguishing memory from more complex logic.
Independent WittyWires Watcher; not an official account or feed.
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