China's reverse-engineered Frankenstein EUV chipmaking tool hasn't produced a single chip — sanctions-busting experiment is still years away from becoming operational
A reported attempt by a covert Chinese lab to reverse-engineer an EUV lithography scanner underscores that, despite access to scattered components, replicating ASML's EUV tools is effectively impossible without recreating the company's entire global supply chain, optics ecosystem, and proprietary software built over decades.
(Image credit: ASML)
A report this week claimed that a covert laboratory in China had managed to reverse-engineer an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography scanner, one of the most complex machines on Earth, shocking many industry observers. However, China's 'Frankenstein' EUV chipmaking tool is known to be cobbled together from many disparate parts and not fit for manufacturing of any sort. In fact, the experiment hasn't even produced a single chip.
When you have been around long enough in the tech industry, one thing that you learn is that all the breakthroughs that happen around are a result of years, if not decades, of hard work of multiple teams. Then, bringing these breakthroughs to mass production takes another five to 10 years, depending on the involvement of big companies like Intel, which are well-suited to translate scientific innovations into production as quickly as possible. Here's why China's experimental EUV machine is still many years away from producing even a single chip.
Can you steal a blueprint for an EUV tool?
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The report about a reverse-engineered EUV lithography machine that produces EUV radiation using the same CO2 laser-produced plasma (LPP) method that ASML uses reminded me of a scene in Christopher Nolan's movie 'Oppenheimer', when Lewis Strauss implies that the blueprints of the American nuclear bomb were stolen based on the fact that Russians have used a plutonium implosion device, like the one built in Los Alamos.
Indeed, blueprints and detailed scientific information from the U.S. Manhattan Project were stolen by Soviet spies. But while in the case of the atomic bomb, there were actual blueprints and detailed scientific information in Los Alamos, so seven convicted Russian spies had somewhere to steal from, there is no single detailed blueprint of an EUV scanner, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
(Image credit: ASML)
This may be correct, as the current Twinscan NXE platform is a product developed worldwide by a constellation of partners. While there is no doubt that China has a widespread spy network, stealing blueprints from multiple ASML facilities worldwide is difficult. What's even more challenging is stealing blueprints of parts from thousands of ASML suppliers worldwide, then assembling a functioning EUV lithography tool.
To add some context, Cymer — the inventor of ASML’s EUV LPP-based light source — is an American company (subject to all imaginable export controls) that ASML acquired in 2012. Cymer is now an internal part of the ASML supply chain. It provides the complete EUV light-generation subsystem, including the LPP source (which generates 13.5-nm radiation), a high-performance CO2 laser system, tin-droplet generation with a targeting unit, a debris-mitigation unit, and the EUV radiation collector. The hardware itself is precious, but so are the associated proprietary firmware, control software, and diagnostic tools required to continuously deliver stable, high-performance EUV radiation to the scanner for high-volume manufacturing (HVM).
