Chinese semiconductor industry
- Thread starter Hendrik_2000
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antiterror13
Brigadier
Thats correct until the big bully change the rule randomly overnight
It is time for countries to absolutely get rid any American made parts and any parts made with American made machines that they seek to export to other countries... A likely upside of some sort is that it will provide some additional employment for people in their own countries instead of those in the United States.
Cooperation is desirable, but it does not have to be mandatory and pined for, because too strong such a desire leaves one at the mercy of fickle external actors who cannot be trusted in any way...
It seems ASML has been better at marketing and building business relationships that go beyond immediate product sales.
Are Japanese dry DUV and wet DUV machines that much more inferior and so much more expensive than the ones of ASML that fabs refuse to buy them on the basis of much less quality and/or much higher cost?
Another thing is that the number over the years as IC chips have become more sophisticated there have been dwindling numbers of them involved in the production of the more sophisticated IC chips. Back in 2002 and 2003, there were 26 prominent IC chip making companies at 130 nm, which was the leading or near leading edge then. That means there was lots and lots of market choice for IC chip equipment makers. Today there's just 3 companies that make 10 nm and just 2 that make 7 nm or less. Nikon and Canon are out of those two markets, and even for the more mature nodes of 32 to 14 nm, ASML has come to dominate provision of lithographic equipment to fabs that make chips of those nodes.
If SMEE can produce DUV equipment comparable in quality to those of Japanese companies, it is likely that they will have a captive market in China for Chinese fabs making chips of nodes more mature than 7 nm because of the great pressure that the United States is placing on companies from US aligned countries not to sell chip making equipment to China of 28 nm and less mature ones.
Why wait until the bridge finally breaks when you see that it is heavily cracking before using another just as effective by-bass to your destination that won't break? Chinese companies do not have to wait until ASML finally succumbs to American pressures not to sell it's DUV equipment to China to purchase DUV equipment from SMEE if that equipment is available that is of comparable quality to that of ASML...
Are all those components magically made US components that none other American can make and can only be made in America? If they are not, and the Europeans actually possess the technological wherewithal to make them, even though it will take time to build the facilities to build them and then to also build them, then they CAN be built...
BUT they might not be built, unless the Dutch are so determined to maintain or even increase market share in China that they decide to do so and they indeed get assurances from China that China will purchase those products made there to an extent that recover the costs over the medium to long term...
I believe that ideally, China would to ensure that ASML maintains significant market share in lithographic equipment sales to Chinese companies, while also ensuring that Chinese equipment companies companies also gain such a share...
It boggles my mind why the Japanese have not made the effort to ensure that the domestic market for more advanced IC chip nodes is not dominated by Japanese fabs. I have read from many sources here and elsewhere that t most advanced logic chips manufactured in Japan are at just 40 nm.
Japan has no internal market for anything more advanced. They also don't have the fabless/foundry ecosystem that developed in the post-Cold War era, most of their fabs are IDMs.
Intel is an integrated device manufacturer too... So is Samsung... So being an integrated device manufacturer alone is not the problem... What else is it? Is it that fabless companies just tend to generally be better at designing logic chips than IDMs, especially for chips not used in PCs, because they can focus their resources in just that one area...
If the United States tries to do that... It will be a hot war... Many countries might just respond to stop reading in goods that the United States seeks and need to import too...
But aside from that, China is pursuing a policy of maximizing self reliance. Whatever can be produced and obtained domestically, procure and produce it to the hilt...
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