Chinese semiconductor thread II
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From The Chinese Academy of Science, A recap on the work on the Immersion Lithography Machine.
Pre export controls:
The development of lithography machine worktables exemplifies the synergy between independent innovation and technological pre-research. In 2001, ASML launched the world’s first dual-worktable system. By 2003, Tsinghua University’s IC Equipment Team, anticipating generational leaps, filed China’s first dual-worktable patent, deliberately skipping the single-worktable phase. Recognizing planar motors’ potential, they began exploratory research in 2005 and published China’s first academic paper on the topic in 2006. This laid the groundwork for their 2008 scaled-down prototype, which, though still using linear motors and air bearings, provided essential validation for future independent innovation.
When China’s National Key R&D Program for IC manufacturing launched in 2009, ASML had already moved to magnetically levitated planar motors, far outpacing older architectures. Continuing down the conventional path would have meant immediate obsolescence. Despite daunting theoretical and engineering challenges, the team chose the planar motor route to break the “develop-and-lag” cycle. Through innovation, including air/magnetic levitation architecture, redundant eight-motor drive, zero-phase error tracking, and ultra-stable dynamic balancing, they developed China’s first dual-worktable planar motor prototype, establishing a new technological baseline.
The measurement system’s evolution also reflects strategic foresight. In 2009, ASML adopted plane grating displacement measurem, a leap beyond China’s entrenched laser interferometry. The Tsinghua team initiated pre-research in 2010 and by 2011 built China’s first plane grating interferometer, proposing a zero-difference fringe locking solution to correct distortion in large-scale grating fabrication. This groundwork enabled their 2017 national project breakthroughs: heterodyne interferometry, meter-level ultra-precision grating manufacturing, picometer-accuracy posture algorithms, and robust system integration achieving sub-nanometer, high-dynamic measurement capability.
Post Export Controls:
Breakthroughs in dual worktables and plane gratings have yielded transformative results. China’s lithography systems now match ASML’s architectural sophistication with full IP ownership, a structural leap. These wins validate that during technological transitions, only forward-looking planning and sustained pre-research can overcome path dependence. Strategic foresight initiates breakthroughs; independent innovation breaks barriers; long-term investment ensures results. This triad, reinforced by courage forms a replicable paradigm for high-end equipment, laying the foundation for full lithography ecosystem independence.
Independent innovation faces dual constraints: fragmented markets hinder demand aggregation and ROI on foundational materials/components; foreign firms enforce patent walls and supply blockades on precision processes. This traps domestic players in a vicious cycle, high R&D risk, low market return, stalling foundational capability growth despite urgent strategic needs.
To counter this, national projects established a demand-aggregation and risk-sharing mechanism — integrating fragmented needs and channeling special funds to foster industry-wide collaboration. Within this, the Tsinghua-Huazhuo Joint Team working with upstream and downstream partners targeted three critical bottlenecks: ceramics, suction cups, and magnet arrays turning systemic weakness into coordinated national progress.
High-performance cordierite ceramics now standard in advanced lithography stages were long monopolized by Japan. Under embargo pressure, the Joint Team collaborated with domestic firms to master raw material synthesis, defect-free sintering, and precision optical machining. The result: China now ranks among the few nations capable of mass-producing ultra-low expansion ceramics dramatically improving thermal stability and stage performance.
Ultra-thin suction cups requiring micron-level flatness, hardness, and thermal stability lagged in domestic capability. The Joint Team partnered with material and machining firms to innovate: controllable conductivity materials, high-precision bump fabrication, and ultra-smooth polishing. The outcome: high-performance domestic suction cups that reduce import reliance, enable repair of foreign systems, and strengthen China’s IC equipment autonomy.
Planar motor magnet arrays, long protected as proprietary foreign know-how posed challenges in assembly precision, field uniformity, and large-surface machining. The Joint Team responded with an intelligent error-correction tooling system, periodic field consistency control, precision protective layer processing, and safe high-yield assembly methods. The result: high-performance magnet arrays that significantly boost stage speed, accuracy, and reliability.
These foundational wins have not only advanced lithography stage R&D but also strengthened the entire supply chain. They prove that under blockade, sustained investment, interdisciplinary collaboration, and national coordination can achieve self-reliance offering a scalable model for other high-end equipment sectors facing similar constraints.
The Joint Team established an efficient “four-in-one” collaboration system linking suppliers, R&D consortia, OEMs, and end-users coordinated through national projects. This enabled end-to-end innovation, from basic materials to integrated machines, transforming fragmented efforts into synchronized national capability.
During glass-ceramic mirror localization, foreign delivery delays prompted the team to simplify design and mobilize four key domestic enterprises including state-owned heavyweights under national project coordination. Three succeeded in mastering core technologies, achieving independent control a clear demonstration of how national projects integrate industrial capacity where markets alone cannot.
For specialized planar motor coils low-volume, no existing suppliers the team adopted a “process-driven” model: developing the full manufacturing process and custom equipment for partner firms. This cultivated a qualified domestic supplier offering a replicable pathway for localizing other niche, high-precision components.
User insight proved decisive. When the team initially favored dual-frequency laser interferometry, end-users drawing on real fab needs insisted on adopting planar grating technology. Heeding this advice avoided costly iteration and directly enabled China’s leapfrog advancement underscoring the value of embedding user feedback in R&D.
The “large-scale production line verification” mechanism accelerated maturity. For a lithography stage, close collaboration with OEMs and fab engineers resolved hundreds of issues boosting equipment uptime from under 50% to over 90%, nearing global benchmarks. This iterative, application-driven approach drastically shortened the lab-to-fab timeline.
These cases show lithography breakthroughs stem not just from technology, but from the national project’s coordination mechanism — achieving three critical shifts: 1) From academic R&D to demand-driven innovation, 2) From isolated firms to industry-wide collaboration, 3) From slow lab validation to rapid production-line iteration. This model offers vital lessons for China’s high-end equipment self-reliance.
Lithography stage progress rests on three pillars: long-term national funding, evolving industry-academia-research collaboration, and strategic alignment with national priorities. Together, they form a uniquely Chinese innovation model purpose-built to achieve technological sovereignty in critical, high-barrier domains.
Pre export controls:
The development of lithography machine worktables exemplifies the synergy between independent innovation and technological pre-research. In 2001, ASML launched the world’s first dual-worktable system. By 2003, Tsinghua University’s IC Equipment Team, anticipating generational leaps, filed China’s first dual-worktable patent, deliberately skipping the single-worktable phase. Recognizing planar motors’ potential, they began exploratory research in 2005 and published China’s first academic paper on the topic in 2006. This laid the groundwork for their 2008 scaled-down prototype, which, though still using linear motors and air bearings, provided essential validation for future independent innovation.
When China’s National Key R&D Program for IC manufacturing launched in 2009, ASML had already moved to magnetically levitated planar motors, far outpacing older architectures. Continuing down the conventional path would have meant immediate obsolescence. Despite daunting theoretical and engineering challenges, the team chose the planar motor route to break the “develop-and-lag” cycle. Through innovation, including air/magnetic levitation architecture, redundant eight-motor drive, zero-phase error tracking, and ultra-stable dynamic balancing, they developed China’s first dual-worktable planar motor prototype, establishing a new technological baseline.
The measurement system’s evolution also reflects strategic foresight. In 2009, ASML adopted plane grating displacement measurem, a leap beyond China’s entrenched laser interferometry. The Tsinghua team initiated pre-research in 2010 and by 2011 built China’s first plane grating interferometer, proposing a zero-difference fringe locking solution to correct distortion in large-scale grating fabrication. This groundwork enabled their 2017 national project breakthroughs: heterodyne interferometry, meter-level ultra-precision grating manufacturing, picometer-accuracy posture algorithms, and robust system integration achieving sub-nanometer, high-dynamic measurement capability.
Post Export Controls:
Breakthroughs in dual worktables and plane gratings have yielded transformative results. China’s lithography systems now match ASML’s architectural sophistication with full IP ownership, a structural leap. These wins validate that during technological transitions, only forward-looking planning and sustained pre-research can overcome path dependence. Strategic foresight initiates breakthroughs; independent innovation breaks barriers; long-term investment ensures results. This triad, reinforced by courage forms a replicable paradigm for high-end equipment, laying the foundation for full lithography ecosystem independence.
Independent innovation faces dual constraints: fragmented markets hinder demand aggregation and ROI on foundational materials/components; foreign firms enforce patent walls and supply blockades on precision processes. This traps domestic players in a vicious cycle, high R&D risk, low market return, stalling foundational capability growth despite urgent strategic needs.
To counter this, national projects established a demand-aggregation and risk-sharing mechanism — integrating fragmented needs and channeling special funds to foster industry-wide collaboration. Within this, the Tsinghua-Huazhuo Joint Team working with upstream and downstream partners targeted three critical bottlenecks: ceramics, suction cups, and magnet arrays turning systemic weakness into coordinated national progress.
High-performance cordierite ceramics now standard in advanced lithography stages were long monopolized by Japan. Under embargo pressure, the Joint Team collaborated with domestic firms to master raw material synthesis, defect-free sintering, and precision optical machining. The result: China now ranks among the few nations capable of mass-producing ultra-low expansion ceramics dramatically improving thermal stability and stage performance.
Ultra-thin suction cups requiring micron-level flatness, hardness, and thermal stability lagged in domestic capability. The Joint Team partnered with material and machining firms to innovate: controllable conductivity materials, high-precision bump fabrication, and ultra-smooth polishing. The outcome: high-performance domestic suction cups that reduce import reliance, enable repair of foreign systems, and strengthen China’s IC equipment autonomy.
Planar motor magnet arrays, long protected as proprietary foreign know-how posed challenges in assembly precision, field uniformity, and large-surface machining. The Joint Team responded with an intelligent error-correction tooling system, periodic field consistency control, precision protective layer processing, and safe high-yield assembly methods. The result: high-performance magnet arrays that significantly boost stage speed, accuracy, and reliability.
These foundational wins have not only advanced lithography stage R&D but also strengthened the entire supply chain. They prove that under blockade, sustained investment, interdisciplinary collaboration, and national coordination can achieve self-reliance offering a scalable model for other high-end equipment sectors facing similar constraints.
The Joint Team established an efficient “four-in-one” collaboration system linking suppliers, R&D consortia, OEMs, and end-users coordinated through national projects. This enabled end-to-end innovation, from basic materials to integrated machines, transforming fragmented efforts into synchronized national capability.
During glass-ceramic mirror localization, foreign delivery delays prompted the team to simplify design and mobilize four key domestic enterprises including state-owned heavyweights under national project coordination. Three succeeded in mastering core technologies, achieving independent control a clear demonstration of how national projects integrate industrial capacity where markets alone cannot.
For specialized planar motor coils low-volume, no existing suppliers the team adopted a “process-driven” model: developing the full manufacturing process and custom equipment for partner firms. This cultivated a qualified domestic supplier offering a replicable pathway for localizing other niche, high-precision components.
User insight proved decisive. When the team initially favored dual-frequency laser interferometry, end-users drawing on real fab needs insisted on adopting planar grating technology. Heeding this advice avoided costly iteration and directly enabled China’s leapfrog advancement underscoring the value of embedding user feedback in R&D.
The “large-scale production line verification” mechanism accelerated maturity. For a lithography stage, close collaboration with OEMs and fab engineers resolved hundreds of issues boosting equipment uptime from under 50% to over 90%, nearing global benchmarks. This iterative, application-driven approach drastically shortened the lab-to-fab timeline.
These cases show lithography breakthroughs stem not just from technology, but from the national project’s coordination mechanism — achieving three critical shifts: 1) From academic R&D to demand-driven innovation, 2) From isolated firms to industry-wide collaboration, 3) From slow lab validation to rapid production-line iteration. This model offers vital lessons for China’s high-end equipment self-reliance.
Lithography stage progress rests on three pillars: long-term national funding, evolving industry-academia-research collaboration, and strategic alignment with national priorities. Together, they form a uniquely Chinese innovation model purpose-built to achieve technological sovereignty in critical, high-barrier domains.
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1- This dismiss claims that is just SMEE working in the lithography machines.
2- As we predicted here China is not just building a "lithography machine" but an entire supply chain for building all kind of lithography machines. Materials, ultra high precision numerical machines and components.
3- Fabs like SMIC, YMTC, CXMT and even HHGrace are not just working in the validation and testing of these machines. They are active participants in the development of these machines, for example when they suggested to the team instead of using dual interferometry to develop Planar Grating Interferometers base on their experience.
4- As I said multiple times here, China has purely almost 100% domestic fabs since 2021-2022 to test and validated equipment, materials and components. Creating a less risky path for domestic fabs to adopt domestic made tools.
5-As we said here, China is using components made in this domestic supply chain to repair and maintain sanctioned lithography machines, one of the reasons why SMIC has been keeping operating all this time.
for those of you, like me, that were left scratching their heads wondering why a flash memory manufacturer would release a product carrying a lower version number of the UFS standard currently in use. I found a very informative article written by Nothing (the phone company).
Jingcun's subsidiary, Miaocun Technology, releases its new blockbuster QLC NAND UFS 2.2 storageAs smart devices continue to pursue high performance and large capacity, QLC NAND UFS memory is becoming a focus of industry attention. Compared to traditional TLC architecture, QLC offers higher storage density and a more cost-effective price, but it also places higher demands on storage controllers and firmware.
Building on its long-term experience and R&D investment in controller chip technology, Jingcun Technology, a subsidiary of Jingcun, has launched its new QLC NAND UFS 2.2 storage product . Notably, Miaocun Technology pioneered the release of UFS controllers and modules at the end of last year. This new product launch aims to provide the end market with a storage solution that combines high performance with high cost-effectiveness.
Relying on independently developed controller technology and continuously optimized firmware solutions, Miaocun Technology's QLC NAND UFS 2.2 memory achieves a precise balance between capacity and performance, with excellent performance and stable operation capabilities. It can better unleash the potential of QLC NAND and meet the needs of terminal devices in diverse scenarios such as system startup, application loading, and interactive response.
MiCun Technology's QLC NAND UFS 2.2 Memory Core Advantages
01 Self-developed controller + customized firmware optimization
Equipped with the self-developed UFS controller chip ATM102, it conducts in-depth analysis of QLC NAND characteristics and optimizes the firmware design by combining software and hardware.
Customized firmware can effectively improve QLC NAND's read and write efficiency, lifespan, and energy consumption, ensuring product stability and reliability.
02 Excellent performance, far exceeding eMMC
The comprehensive performance of QLC NAND UFS 2.2 memory is about three times that of eMMC, the price is close to that of eMMC, and it is superior to TLC UFS 2.2 in some indicators.
Currently, the products cover three capacity segments: 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB. In the future, we will further launch 1TB and 2TB ultra-large capacity products to meet the diverse needs from mid-range to high-end devices.
04 Wide range of application scenarios
The product is suitable for consumer electronic terminals such as smartphones and tablets, and is compatible with mainstream control platforms, providing OEM manufacturers with an ideal storage solution with large capacity, high cost performance and high performance.
UFS 2.2 specifications was released half a year after UFS 3.1, something this article doesn't mention, so the debate is about big number vs small number rather than older standard vs newer one.