BEIJING: Senior Chinese semiconductor executives have called for a coordinated national effort to develop operational lithography systems during the 2026–2030 period, underscoring Beijing’s push for greater technological self-reliance.
Zhao Jinrong, chairman of Naura Technology Group, Chen Nanxiang, chairman and president of Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp, and Liu Weiping, chairman of Empyrean Technology, co-authored an article with leading semiconductor institutes that was published online late on Wednesday.
They urged the government to pool national resources and better integrate technological breakthroughs across institutions.
Semiconductor manufacturing has become a key battleground in the China–U.S. technology rivalry since 2020, with Washington imposing restrictions aimed at limiting China’s ability to expand advanced production capacity below 7 nanometres.
“Taking lithography machines as an example, ASML’s extreme ultraviolet (EUV) equipment has 100,000 components supplied by 5,000 suppliers, with ASML serving as the integrator,” the executives wrote in Science and Technology Review, a journal affiliated with China’s science and technology professionals association.
Dutch firm ASML Holding is the world’s sole supplier of EUV lithography machines, which are essential for producing the most advanced semiconductor chips used in smartphones, artificial intelligence and advanced computing.
“How to establish China’s ASML ... and uniformly allocate funds and human resources is an urgent issue that relevant departments should immediately formulate implementation plans for,” the article said.
Semiconductor and national strategy
The authors said China has made progress across institutions in areas such as EUV laser light sources, wafer stages and optical systems, but integrating these components into a complete system remains a challenge that should be addressed during the 15th five-year plan period.
The article also cited bottlenecks in electronic design automation (EDA) software and in basic materials such as silicon wafers and electronic gases as areas requiring national-level coordination.
China designated semiconductors as a core pillar of its emerging industries – alongside aviation, biotechnology and the low-altitude economy – in its latest government work report released on Thursday. Chinese Premier Li Qiang highlighted breakthroughs in domestically driven chip research and development in the report.
The five-year roadmap did not specifically mention lithography machines, calling instead for improving advanced process manufacturing capabilities and accelerating the development of key equipment, materials and components.
China’s chip production capacity at the mature 28-nanometre node and above accounts for 33% of global capacity and remains unrestricted in both manufacturing and design, according to the Science and Technology Review article.
The authors also called for establishing public platforms with advanced process capabilities to research, develop and verify new device structures, process equipment, components, materials and EDA software.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
