China Assembles an EUV Lithography Prototype — A Step Toward Its Own Advanced Chip Production
In a classified laboratory in Shenzhen, Chinese engineers have assembled a working prototype of an EUV lithography machine—the very type previously produced only by the Dutch company ASML. This was reported by sources close to a Reuters investigation, with the information published by the Russian IT media outlet Habr. Habr
This became possible thanks to a team of specialists, including former ASML engineers, who worked under pseudonyms and used components from older lithography systems, some of which were acquired even through secondary markets, including online platforms such as Alibaba Auction. The prototype is already generating extreme ultraviolet radiation—the key physical effect behind advanced EUV lithography—but has not yet produced a single finished chip.
The project is overseen at the state level: it is backed by China’s Central Commission for Science and Technology, with participation from major players such as Huawei, which is involved in chip and equipment integration. The goal is to launch industrial production of commercial chips by 2028–2030, significantly accelerating expectations compared to previous forecasts by Western experts.
If this initiative succeeds, China will be able to reduce its technological dependence on Western equipment suppliers and bring its domestic microelectronics industry to a qualitatively new level. At the same time, questions remain about production scale, the component base, and the precision of complex optics—elements that traditionally required enormous investments and decades of development.
Source: habr.com
