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Credit: ASML
A secret lab in China has quietly assembled a prototype extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography system and is now secretly testing it, meaning the country could be close to replicating the most advanced technology currently on Earth, it reports. Reuters.
The tool was developed by reverse engineering ASML’s existing scanners and is said to be on track to make prototype chips in 2028. If the information is correct, then Chinese scientists have made numerous breakthroughs in multiple disciplines in just a few years instead of decades, a scenario that seems highly unlikely. Further analysis of the report indicates that China’s lab is far from completing the tool, meaning the country is several years away from producing chips using EUV lithography.
China’s alleged EUV scanner
The system was completed in early 2025 in a highly secure facility in Shenzhen and occupies almost an entire floor of the factory. The Chinese machine appears to generate EUV light with a wavelength of 13.5 nm using the same laser produced plasma (LPP) method as ASML’s Twinscan NXE machines, not the particle accelerator-based steady-state microarray (SSMB) method designed at Tsinghua University or discharge produced plasma (DPP), the technology that could prove the technological system developed at the Harbin H-point. reverse engineered or at least contains a substantial amount of technologies pioneered by ASML.
Credit: ASML
The Laser Produced Plasma (LPP) ASML method uses tiny droplets of molten tin, about 25-30 microns in diameter, which are injected into a vacuum chamber at a rate of about 50,000 drops per second. Then, a high-powered CO₂ laser first fires a low-intensity pre-pulse at each droplet, flattening it into a disc-like shape, followed by a more powerful main pulse that vaporizes the flattened tin and creates a superheated plasma with temperatures exceeding 200,000°C. This plasma emits isotropic EUV light, which is then collected by a large multilayer collector mirror and directed into the reflective optics of the lithography system for silicon wafer patterning. This process is repeated tens of thousands of times per second.
The machine appears to be larger than the original, but is operational in the sense that it can generate EUV radiation. However, it has not progressed to making usable chips, as it still struggles to replicate the “precision optical systems” characteristics of the Twinscan NXE systems. Additionally, there is no word on the power of the EUV light source, a crucial parameter that defines whether or not a tool can be used for volume production.
It is not operational, for now
The report clearly states that the Chinese EUV scanner cannot currently be used to make chips, but the Chinese government wants the first chip prototypes to appear in 2028, two or three years later. However, a more realistic target is 2030, four or five years from now, which is a long time. Meanwhile, from the report, it is not entirely clear what stage the Chinese team is in today.
Credit: ASML
The report does not reveal which specific components of the optical system are the main bottlenecks, as the article groups them together in general terms. In particular, it is uncertain whether the alleged EUV tool is struggling to replicate the system of ultra-precise collecting mirrors coated with molybdenum-silicon (Mo/Si) multilayer stacks, illumination optics (which shape and smooth the beam using faceted mirrors), or projection optics (an array of aspherical mirrors for the 4X – 8X error reduction wave). ASML outsources the development and production of these components to Carl Zeiss in Germany. If the developers did not manage to reproduce the collector itself, then the rest of the machine can hardly be called an EUV lithography system, because technically, the only thing they have is some kind of light source that they have not yet learned how to use. However, even if developers can’t replicate the illuminator optics or the projection optics (suggesting that the collector itself is there), it means they don’t even have a malfunctioning EUV lithography tool, but rather a set of specific components.
When we talk about advanced lithography equipment, we must keep in mind that such tools rely on the seamless integration of sophisticated light sources, advanced optics, ultra-precise mechanical engineering, complex control software and specialized materials, all of which must operate reliably within the nanoscale tolerances required by modern chip manufacturing. The story is silent on the state of the alleged tool’s mechanical systems: we know nothing about the wafer storage system, wafer stages, or reticle stages, all of which are crucial to operation and yields.
Credit: ASML
To put China’s EUV efforts into perspective, the secret lab isn’t even close to building an alpha instrument. For now, what the Chinese lab has can’t even put light on a wafer except for lines and print spaces, which ASML’s tool could do in 2006, about 11 years before the company shipped its first Twinscan NXE:3400B system intended for high-volume production. Of course, reverse engineering certain components can give Chinese engineers a speed boost, but it remains to be seen how significant this will be.
Reverse engineering an ASML Twinscan NXE?
Conformable of Reuters sources familiar with the effort, the Chinese EUV tool was “developed” by a team that includes former ASML engineers and recent university graduates who reportedly reverse-engineered the company’s EUV machines. The secret lab was so hidden that its employees were given fake IDs to avoid detection of their concentration in one place by foreign spies.
Credit: ASML
However, it is not clear how any engineers in China could reverse engineer an EUV lithography scanner, as the Dutch company has never supplied one to China and has hardly taught Chinese personnel how to maintain its EUV systems which are not allowed to be shipped to the People’s Republic.
Reverse engineering a machine containing more than 100,000 parts is a difficult task that requires hundreds of engineers with knowledge in this field, which is why the secretive entity run by the Chinese Government hired not only former engineers from ASML China, but also former employees of the Dutch company from elsewhere, probably Europe, Taiwan and the US. Shanghai Institute of Optics, which filed eight EUV-related patents in just 18 months. However, this may mean that he is using his experience and knowledge rather than trying to replicate what he did at ASML or reverse engineer what he did at ASML due to the absence of an EUV scanner in his lab.
“It makes sense that companies would want to replicate our technology, but doing so is no small feat,” an ASML statement published by Reuters read.
About 100 recent university graduates are tasked with reverse engineering parts from EUV and DUV lithography tools, each job monitored by a dedicated camera that records the disassembly and reassembly process, an important part of China’s entire lithography program, according to the report. Employees who successfully bring the components together receive bonuses. Again, a Twinscan NXE instrument is a mechanism made up of over 100,000 parts working together, not just a sum of all the parts.
To recap, China has apparently built a secret prototype EUV lithography system and begun testing it, suggesting the country may be closer to replicating the most advanced chip-making technology in existence than previously thought. However, the details provided by the report indicate that China is still several years – if not a decade – away from producing chips using EUV lithography.
Credit: ASML
The device can generate 13.5 nm EUV light using the same laser produced plasma (LPP) method used by ASML, which can demonstrate extensive reverse engineering of Western technology rather than using alternative in-house approaches. However, the tool is significantly larger than commercial systems available today, cannot produce usable chips, and appears to struggle with other elements of EUV lithography, particularly the ultra-precise optics provided to ASML by Carl Zeiss. In fact, details about the system, such as the power of the light source, the maturity of the optical subsystem, and the condition of critical mechanical components, remain unclear.
While China expects the first prototype EUV chips to appear in 2028, Reuters sources suggest 2030 is more realistic. However, the entire effort relies heavily on recruiting former ASML engineers and reverse-engineering parts from existing EUV and DUV instruments, which are not only difficult to develop, but extremely difficult to make. Meanwhile, there’s no word if the current team responsible for disassembling and reassembling the components can actually make an ultra-complex machine consisting of more than 100,000 parts work flawlessly to produce semiconductors in high volumes.
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