Huawei Technologies Co., alongside a confidential chip production partner in China, have showcased their innovation through patent applications highlighting a method for advancing semiconductor manufacturing. This method, focusing on self-aligned quadruple patterning (SAQP), aims at diminishing the dependency on cutting-edge lithography methods. Such a development suggests that China might be on the verge of enhancing its semiconductor fabrication capabilities, in spite of US efforts to limit its growth in this field.
The technique put forward in these patents, filed with the Chinese intellectual property office, positions the companies to fabricate high-end chips without needing the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines produced by ASML Holding NV of the Netherlands. Due to export restrictions, ASML's advanced EUV equipment is unavailable in China.
Quadruple patterning is a critical process for layering silicon wafers to achieve higher transistor density, thus improving chip performance. Huawei's patent outlines a strategy leveraging this process for the creation of more complex semiconductors, which, as per their claim, would enhance the flexibility in circuit pattern design.
Another entity, SiCarrier, which is backed by the state and collaborates with Huawei, received a patent related to SAQP. Their method utilizes deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography alongside SAQP to meet the technical benchmarks of 5 nanometer (nm) chips, purportedly reducing manufacturing costs while bypassing the need for EUV systems.
Experts, such as Dan Hutcheson from TechInsights, acknowledge that while quadruple patterning could allow China to produce 5nm chips, accessing EUV technology remains a critical long-term need for truly competing at the highest levels of semiconductor manufacturing. Advanced chip producers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (TSMC) prefer EUV technology due to its efficiency and cost-effectiveness in chip production.
Currently, the most advanced commercially available chips use 3nm processes, with China trailing somewhat, capable of producing 7nm chips. Advancement to 5nm manufacturing would markedly narrow this gap.
The restriction of certain high-tech semiconductor and chipmaking equipment exports to China by the US and its allies, including the prohibition of ASML’s EUV machines and Nvidia Corp.’s advanced graphic processors, is a part of a broader national security strategy. However, Chinese firms, including Huawei, continue to forge ahead in their technological advancements, as exemplified by Huawei's launch of a smartphone powered by a 7nm processor last year, underlining strides made in defiance of global restrictions.
The Biden administration is actively seeking further measures to curtail China's technological ascent, encouraging allies to partake in these restrictions and contemplating additional sanctions on Chinese chip manufacturers associated with Huawei like SiCarrier.
In the backdrop of these challenges, Chinese semiconductor firms and equipment manufacturers are increasingly gravitating towards SAQP and other multiple patterning technologies to advance their chip production capabilities, in the absence of access to EUV technologies. This push is part of a wider national effort, underscored by high-profile government support, to elevate China’s position in the global semiconductor industry.
