Lin Benjian, former vice president of R&D at TSMC: It is futile for the United States to try to restrict China’s progress

According to foreign media reports, on October 30, Burn J. Lin, the “father of immersion lithography” and former vice president of R&D at TSMC, a major wafer foundry, rarely said in an interview that the United States cannot stop it. Mainland Chinese companies have made progress in advanced process chip technology and said China should be able to use existing equipment to continue advancing to the next generation of 5nm process technology.

According to reports, Huawei shocked the United States by launching a new Kirin processor based on domestic advanced manufacturing technology, proving that Chinese manufacturers can use existing old machines to manufacture more complex chips.

Lin Benjian said that China has achieved breakthroughs in chip technology, breaking the restrictions in the United States aimed at curbing its technological progress. "The United States cannot completely prevent China from improving its chip technology." It is believed that China already has the equipment to continue to advance the process technology to the 5nm process.

Regarding the recent upgrade of semiconductor export restrictions by the United States, Lin Benjian said that despite the technical restrictions imposed by the United States through sanctions, Chinese manufacturers have demonstrated remarkable resilience and ingenuity by developing the second-generation 7-nanometer manufacturing process. It also achieved high enough production volumes for Huawei to develop plans to supply 70 million smartphones.

It is said that China's latest advanced process technology uses Dutch ASML's Twinscan NXT:2000i series lithography tools, which is a deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography equipment that can produce chips using 7nm and 5nm level process technologies. The resolution of Twinscan NXT:2000i (≤38nm) is sufficient to meet the needs of 7nm-level single-pattern photolithography mass production. But earlier this year, the Dutch government restricted continued exports of the tool to China.

Additionally, when it comes to 5nm-level process technology, finer resolution is required. To produce it, chipmakers can use Twinscan NXT:2000i to do double, triple or even quadruple patterning, a more complex photolithography technique that involves splitting a pattern into several patterns and then printing these sequentially Patterning to achieve greater precision and detail in semiconductor manufacturing. The use of multiple patterning is a tricky process that affects yield and the number of chips that can be used on each wafer, so its use is often limited for economic reasons.

But limited by the tools it already has, Chinese chipmakers have no choice but to use multiple patterning to achieve finer resolutions. Obviously, it has reached a yield rate that is acceptable to Huawei. It can be seen that the US government’s restriction strategy has not had much effect.

Lin Benjian pointed out: “What the United States should really do is focus on maintaining its leading position in chip design, rather than trying to restrict China’s progress, which is futile and will harm the global economy. Because China is adopting a national strategy to develop its chip industry. "