Huawei EUV Scanner Patent Suggests Sub-7nm Chips for China

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Huawei files a patent application covering EUV scanners.

ASML
(Image credit: ASML)

Huawei has filed a patent application covering an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography scanner, according to UDN. If the company builds such a scanner and achieves decent productivity, uptime, and yields, Chinese chipmakers could produce chips on sub-7nm-class technologies. The only question is when. 

In mid-November, Huawei filed an application with the State Intellectual Property Office for a patent covering an EUV scanner and its key components. The patent application number is 202110524685X, reports MyDrivers. 

The patent application appears to cover all crucial components of an EUV scanner, including a 13.5 nm EUV light generator (light source), a set of reflecting mirrors, the lithography system, and 'control management technologies' (we would speculate that this is how they call metrology), according to descriptions published by various media sources.  

Filing a patent is not equal to being able to build an EUV scanner, which is a highly complex machine featuring numerous state-of-the-art components that have to work perfectly in concert and for prolonged amounts of time. Furthermore, even with an EUV tool at hand, chipmakers still have to figure out the right pellicles for masks, resists, and many other things necessary for high-volume production. 

(Image credit: ASML)

An EUV scanner with a 0.33 numerical aperture is the pinnacle of today's semiconductor production tools. Numerous companies attempted to develop such a tool, but only ASML succeeded after over ten years of development and with financial support from Intel, Samsung, and TSMC. Today, Samsung, SK Hynix, and TSMC actively use EUV tools from ASML, but Intel has yet to start high-volume chip production using these tools.  

For now, only Intel, Micron, Samsung, SK Hynix, and TSMC either use or plan to use EUV scanners. Moreover, only these five companies have developed (or plan to develop) process technologies sophisticated enough to take advantage of EUV scanners. Meanwhile, China-based SMIC could not get an already procured EUV tool to develop its own EUV-based fabrication process due to the Wassenaar arrangement. Therefore, it is evident that demand for EUV scanners potentially exists in China, and apparently, Huawei was eager to address it. 

As a world-class high-tech conglomerate with some $100 billion in annual revenue, Huawei pursues different goals and develops many technologies. The company's semiconductor production ambitions are well known, and they are not limited to chip production but also to building wafer fab equipment. Huawei's WFE efforts are advancing pretty well as the company applied for a patent covering an EUV scanner.

 

Anton Shilov
Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

41 Comments Comment from the forums
  • kjfatl
    It is likely that China will successfully develop it's own equipment and provide a real competitor for AMSL. The question is timing. Will it happen in 1 year or will it take 10? Competition is a good thing. Leveling the playing field with the Chips Act is as well. The winner will be the consumers in both Western countries and China.
    Reply
  • Eliad Buchnik
    kjfatl said:
    It is likely that China will successfully develop it's own equipment and provide a real competitor for AMSL. The question is timing. Will it happen in 1 year or will it take 10? Competition is a good thing. Leveling the playing field with the Chips Act is as well. The winner will be the consumers in both Western countries and China.
    I doubt they will develop any EUV tool soon, or maybe at all - just to correct the article, EUV machines have been in R&D since late 90's so more likely 20+ years of development. and it is the effort of many companies not just ASML (such as Zeiss to name one). What they will likely do, is what the they do best (arguably the best in the world) is to steal and copy other's work.
    Reply
  • PlaneInTheSky
    China already has the EUV know-how they need.

    I'll tell you why.

    IMEC has this tech, and Belgian universities are overflowing with Chinese students. I studied there and I was one of the few non-Chinese doing electro engineering.

    IMEC is right next to the University. Most of the technology about EUV is from IMEC. Those first ASML EUV machines, they didn't go to Intel or Samsung, they went to IMEC to do research.

    Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger: “Europe has 2 jewels. One is ASML, the most advanced lithography, and the other is IMEC, the most advanced semiconductor research in the world.”

    To understand what ASML does, you need to understand what IMEC does. One can not exist without the other.

    Intel understands this, but so does China. Huawei understand this. Huawei invites Belgian students to China, students that sometimes work at IMEC for post doctorates and have knowledge of EUV. It's one giant in and outflow of students.

    The only way this could be possibly stopped is if governments stop the mass inflow of Chinese students at universities. But universities make lots of money from foreign students, so I don't see that happening.

    I actually addressed this issue with a professor when I was at uni, who worked at IMEC too, but I was pretty much brushed aside as having "racist undertones" for questioning the amount of Chinese students at the campus having easy access to IMEC's developments, who then went back to China after their studies.

    Belgian news today:
    Controversial program: Flemish students to China at Huawei's expense. UAntwerpen and UGent are downplaying criticism of a partnership with Huawei. The Flemish Inter-University Council demands a correct framework from State Security.

    Belgian news 2019:
    "Belgian Huawei subsidiary blacklisted by USA. Huawei Technologies Research & Development NV" (headquarters in Gent), is a spin-off from the Microelectronics Institute and Components (IMEC) in Leuven, founded in 2010. It was acquired in 2013 by Huawei."
    Reply
  • bit_user
    kjfatl said:
    Competition is a good thing.
    If it's free and fair (i.e. no "dumping" is involved). "Dumping" is the practice of selling below-cost (usually supported by government subsidies), for the purpose of driving competitors out of business and cornering the market. Then, prices can rise above what would've been profitalbe for the now-defunct competitors. In the long run, customers lose, though it seems pretty nice during the "dumping" phase.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

    PlaneInTheSky said:
    universities make lots of money from foreign students, so I don't see that happening.
    International students is a tricky issue, because you really don't want to ban an entire nationality from studying at your universities. I think it just highlights the need to have a functioning system of IP protection & enforcement. I don't know how we get there, but it's clearly what needs to happen.
    Reply
  • DavidLejdar
    Might be quite quick actually, as they may not need to develop every component themselves. E.g. them ultra-reflective mirrors, perhaps Carl Zeiss would be happy to supply. And for components Huawei may need to R&D themselves, a lot of stuff has progressed in the past 20 years, to a point where they may be only one step away e.g. from generating EUV light. And there is more involved of course, but Huawei's R&D department isn't exactly small, as can be seen e.g. by the number of their 5G patents (as in actually developed themselves before others, some of who were then like: "You know, if you use a cable from Huawei, Xi can take control of your entire country." - which is a bit caricaturized, but you know what I mean).
    Reply
  • shady28
    PlaneInTheSky said:
    China already has the EUV know-how they need.

    I'll tell you why.

    IMEC has this tech, and Belgian universities are overflowing with Chinese students. I studied there and I was one of the few non-Chinese doing electro engineering.

    IMEC is right next to the University. Most of the technology about EUV is from IMEC. Those first ASML EUV machines, they didn't go to Intel or Samsung, they went to IMEC to do research.

    Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger: “Europe has 2 jewels. One is ASML, the most advanced lithography, and the other is IMEC, the most advanced semiconductor research in the world.”

    To understand what ASML does, you need to understand what IMEC does. One can not exist without the other.

    Intel understands this, but so does China. Huawei understand this. Huawei invites Belgian students to China, students that sometimes work at IMEC for post doctorates and have knowledge of EUV. It's one giant in and outflow of students.

    The only way this could be possibly stopped is if governments stop the mass inflow of Chinese students at universities. But universities make lots of money from foreign students, so I don't see that happening.

    I actually addressed this issue with a professor when I was at uni, who worked at IMEC too, but I was pretty much brushed aside as having "racist undertones" for questioning the amount of Chinese students at the campus having easy access to IMEC's developments, who then went back to China after their studies.

    Belgian news today:


    Belgian news 2019:


    What you describe as far as the number of Chinese students has been the case at least since the 1990s, though probably not to the level it's at now.

    When I was in school back then, I had a Chinese roommate. I was going for my BS in Comp Sci and he was going for his Masters. His undergrad degree was in 'Signal Analysis'. They do things differently in China's universities, at least back then. They would go from a very specific discipline at undergrad, to more generalization at doctoral. Western schools tend to go from generalization, to specialization.

    Anyway, I had a number of conversations with him about this, because I had the same question then as people generally do now. With all these PHD engineers running around, why isn't China on top of tech?

    His answer was interesting. Has to more to do with social structure, than availability of educated people with the correct skills.

    It came down to this: China is very hierarchical. People in China with a PHD don't actually do much work. That is why they got a PHD in the first place, so they can be respected and boss other people around. Hence they never get any practical experience, they just tell others what to do, and they have little reason to change as individual accomplishment is rarely celebrated in China. This is a behavior that would never work in the west, because companies in competition need their best people working hard to be competitive, else the company fails. China's big tech companies tend to be state backed, so they will never fail.

    Now, things may have changed in the intervening 25 years. I would imagine it has, since China is a pseudo-capitalistic system.

    But this might help explain why they are so very slow at getting ahead, despite what would seem an insurmountable position of dominance on a qualification 'spec sheet' that just counts the number of graduates / higher degreed STEM engineers for the country as a whole. Especially given they've had that dominance for nearly 30 years now.

    The system they operate in simply does not encourage people who can, to expend the effort to do.
    Reply
  • setx
    bit_user said:
    If it's free and fair (i.e. no "dumping" is involved). "Dumping" is the practice of selling below-cost (usually supported by government subsidies), for the purpose of driving competitors out of business and cornering the market. Then, prices can rise above what would've been profitalbe for the now-defunct competitors. In the long run, customers lose, though it seems pretty nice during the "dumping" phase.
    And western big companies do this "free and fair" since when? For example, Intel.
    Reply
  • TCA_ChinChin
    bit_user said:
    Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.


    International students is a tricky issue, because you really don't want to ban an entire nationality from studying at your universities. I think it just highlights the need to have a functioning system of IP protection & enforcement. I don't know how we get there, but it's clearly what needs to happen.
    Agreed. It'll be hard since even if there is a ton of Chinese subsidized students studying at Flemish universities, then going back to China, there isn't anything wrong with that at a surface level. Its only if those students are engaged in stealing the patents and technology from sensitive locations. Definitely don't ban nationalities or even set quotas, just have a very strict security & legal apparatus that can handle the IP protection you mentioned would be a good.

    shady28 said:
    Now, things may have changed in the intervening 25 years. I would imagine it has, since China is a pseudo-capitalistic system.

    But this might help explain why they are so very slow at getting ahead, despite what would seem an insurmountable position of dominance on a qualification 'spec sheet' that just counts the number of graduates / higher degreed STEM engineers for the country as a whole. Especially given they've had that dominance for nearly 30 years now.

    The system they operate in simply does not encourage people who can, to expend the effort to do.

    I think they have gotten significantly better compared to 25 years ago, but still have a ways to go before their higher educational and research systems are on par with western ones. I saw very little of what you described in my undergraduate computer/electrical engineering classes, but from what I get talking to people working in China, the hierarchical system still exists to some degree.
    Reply
  • RedBear87
    bit_user said:
    If it's free and fair (i.e. no "dumping" is involved). "Dumping" is the practice of selling below-cost (usually supported by government subsidies), for the purpose of driving competitors out of business and cornering the market. Then, prices can rise above what would've been profitalbe for the now-defunct competitors. In the long run, customers lose, though it seems pretty nice during the "dumping" phase.
    Does the Chips Act qualify as "dumping" or is it only dumping when China does it? Asking for a friend.
    Reply