China, unable to access leading-edge wafer fab tools from American, European, and Japanese manufacturers, has to develop its own fab equipment. Huawei is building a giant research and development (R&D) center near Shanghai, where it plans to develop chipmaking tools that will have to be competitive with systems designed by ASML, Canon, and Nikon, reports Nikkei.
The R&D center will focus on developing lithography machines, which are essential for making chips on leading-edge nodes. For now, Huawei's partners SMIC and Hua Hong cannot get litho tools that allow them to make logic chips on 14nm/16nm FinFET-based process technologies and more advanced processes, but they can still obtain 28nm-capable lithography systems. Therefore, Huawei-developed machines will have to be at least 28nm, or better 14nm/16nm-capable. For now, ASML controls well over 90% of the lithography tools market.
.jpg?w=600)
