China’s choices of immersion deep-ultraviolet (DUV) lithography systems that it can buy from ASML have narrowed in the wake of the Netherlands’ tightening of export rules.
ASML said in a recent statement that the Dutch government has partially revoked its license for the shipment of NXT:2050i and NXT:2100i lithography systems to China from the beginning of this year.
There’s some wishful thinking on display in China. On Wednesday, many mainland news websites said ASML had “completely” shipped all high-end DUV lithography machines to China by the January 1 deadline. They cited a report published by China Times, a pro-Beijing Taiwanese newspaper, on Tuesday.
But in fact, the original China Times report only said that the pre-scheduled shipments of ASML’s DUV machines had “basically” been completed by the end of 2023.
The difference between completely and basically coud turn out to be enormous.
Shen Bo, president of ASML in China, told the media last November that ASML had not yet delivered products worth about 35 billion euros (US$38.2 billion) globally. He said many of those orders were from China.
The company said last June that it would have to apply for export licenses from the Dutch government for all shipments of its most advanced immersion DUV lithography systems, the NXT:2000i and subsequent immersion systems. The new rules originally would have come into effect on September 1, 2023, but the deadline was later postponed to January 1, 2024.
In its latest statement, ASML did not say whether its export license for the shipment of NXT:2000i lithography has been revoked.
But if it is also revoked, the only immersion DUV machine that Chinese customers can purchase from ASML will be the NXT:1980 series, which is capable of making 38 nanometer chips in single exposure and up to 7nm chips in multiple exposure.
Affected shipment
The Biden administration reached out to ASML “weeks before” the January 1, 2024 export ban deadline, requesting the firm to halt some pre-scheduled shipments of its DUV machines to its Chinese customers, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
Shipments of a limited number of machines were affected, according to the report.
Shen Bo in November said his company had shipped 1400 lithography, testing and detecting machines to China since its first shipment to the country in 1988. He did not provide a breakdown of the figure.
Citing an unnamed expert in the chip-making industry, Caijing.com reported last November that there were fewer than five ASML systems in China as advanced as NXT:2000i. The report said the total number of NXT:1980Di in China should be below 80.
Fang Liang, a senior investment manager at Huayi Ventures, was quoted as saying in the November report that the US, the Netherlands and Japan were restricting exports to China of not only their lithography machines but also their parts, materials, critical process parameters and production environment facilities.
Sending front-line technicians had also beeen restricted, he said, and many Chinese chipmakers were having difficulties in sourcing lithography parts.
NXT:1980Di
In 2022, ASML generated about 2.92 billion euros in revenue from China. In the first three quarters of 2023, the figure grew to 5.28 billion euros.
Some analysts said the increase in shipments to China in 2023 was due to the country’s plan to purchase more NXT:1980Di. But some commentators said the shipments of NXT:1980Di from the Netherlands to China may also be banned one day.
On October 17, 2023, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) said lithography machines with a maximum “dedicated chuck overlay (DCO)” value between 1.5nm and 2.4nm cannot be shipped from the US to China.
The DCO value is an indicator of imaging performance. The smaller the value, the higher the accuracy.
The new rules mean that the BIS has banned the shipments of ASML’s NXT:1980Di and NXT:1970Ci, which have maximum DCO values of 1.6nm and 2nm, respectively, from the US to China. Until now, there has been no sign that the Dutch government will follow suit.
ASML said Monday that in recent discussions with the US government, it has obtained further clarification of the scope and impact of the US export control regulations.
It said it is fully committed to comply with all applicable laws and regulations including export control legislation in the countries in which it operates.
Read: Chip packaging as next front in the tech wars
Follow Jeff Pao on Twitter at @jeffpao3