Chinese tech giants SMIC and Huawei have made significant progress in the semiconductor sector in recent years, but US sanctions means they are still 10-15 years behind leading chipmakers like Intel, TSMC and Samsung.
Those remarks were made by Christopher Fouquet, chief executive of ASML, Europe and the world’s leading chip toolmaker, according to a report by Tom’s Hardware, which cited an interview he gave with NRC in the Netherlands.
“By banning the export of EUV [extreme ultraviolet lithography machines], China will lag 10 to 15 years behind the West. That really has an effect,” he said.
China’s top chipmaker SMIC cannot match Taiwan’s TSMC even with ASML’s best Deep UltraViolet (DUV) machines, which are capable of producing 5-nanometre to 7nm chips, because it can’t get the leading EUV machines, the report said.
“However, the main concern is not that Chinese companies may develop their own EUV lithography tools some 15 years down the road, but that they might copy ASML’s mainstream DUV machines (such as Twinscan NXT:2000i) over the next several years,” it said.
Read the full report: Tom’s Hardware.
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