At present, the most advanced lithography machine that has been put into mass production in China is the 90nm lithography machine. Although the 28nm lithography machine has achieved a technological breakthrough, it is still in the testing stage because the rate of good products is relatively low and has not been put into production.
Some netizens may have some bold ideas about this. Can we use a pure domestic 90nm lithography machine to make a 14nm chip?
First of all, I can definitely tell you the answer, it's impossible.
Some friends may say that there is no problem in using a 90-nanometer lithography machine to produce a 14-nanometer chip after technological improvement and multiple exposures, but this is only an ideal value in theory, but it is not feasible in reality.
This first gives everyone the most basic common sense, that is, the wavelength and accuracy of the lithography machine are two different things.
When it comes to the lithography machine, what we normally mean by the process is its accuracy, that is, the resolution, for example, the domestic 90nm lithography machine is also 90nm resolution.
But in fact, the wavelength of the 90 nm lithography machine is not 90 nm, but much larger than 90 nm.
At present, the lithography machines on the market are divided into two categories, one is EUV lithography, and the other is DUV lithography, of which EUV lithography is mastered only by ASML of the Netherlands, but not by other countries.
At present, the domestic lithography machine belongs to DUV lithography machine, and the light source of DUV lithography machine is excimer laser. According to different technology, the wavelength of DUV lithography machine can be divided into 365nm, 248nm, 193nm and equivalent 134nm.
At present, the wavelength of domestic 90nmDUV lithography machine should be between 193nm and 248nm.
Then why do we say that the domestic lithography machine is the most advanced up to 90 nm? In fact, in addition to the wavelength, we also need to use the objective lens and light source to improve the accuracy.
But at present, the domestic objective lens and light source also have great challenges, and the world's top objective lens and light source manufacturers, such as Germany Zeiss and the United States crymer, they are impossible to export the most advanced objective lens and light source to us, it is difficult to improve the accuracy of lithography machine provided by domestic suppliers in a short time.
So it's almost impossible to use a domestic lithography machine to make a 14-nanometer chip, and if it were possible, we wouldn't have such a headache now.
Some friends may say that a 14-nanometer chip can also be produced with a 90-nanometer lithography machine after many exposures, but many people may have overlooked several problems.
The first is the question of cost.
If you use a 90-nanometer lithography machine to produce 14-nanometer chips after many exposures, the cost will rise rapidly, and the cost may be several times that of ordinary 14nm nano-chips. The final chip produced does not have any market advantage, and it is impossible for enterprises to do this kind of business at a loss.
The second is the question of the rate of good products.
Even if our country can really produce 14 nm chips with 90 nm lithography machine after many efforts, the rate of good products will not be very high, and it is very good that the rate of good products can reach 10%. Such a low rate of good products not only greatly increases the cost of enterprises, the key is whether any manufacturers are willing to purchase this kind of chips is a big problem.
Therefore, after the synthesis of various factors, it is almost impossible to use 90nm domestic lithography machine to manufacture and implement nano-chips.
At present, the only hope is that after the mass production of domestic 28nm lithography machines, it is indeed possible to produce 14nm or even 7nm chips.
At present, the domestic 28nm lithography machine has achieved a technological breakthrough, and it is still in the testing stage. According to the original plan of Shanghai Microelectronics, it is said that mass production will be achieved before the end of 2022, but according to the current progress, it is estimated that it will be difficult to achieve mass production in the short term. It may have to wait until 2023 or even 2024.
However, since China has achieved a breakthrough in 28nm lithography technology, the future mass production of 28nm lithography machine will come sooner or later.
Once our country has mastered the mature 28nm lithography machine, combined with the improvement of chip manufacturing process, after many exposures, it can be used to produce 14nm lithography machine, and may even be used to produce 7nm nano-chip.
You should know that TSMC's first generation of 7nm chips were also realized by DUV lithography. At that time, they used ASML's ARFi DUV lithography machine, which had a maximum resolution of 38nm.
It is said that the new generation of lithography machine developed by Shanghai Microelectronics has a maximum resolution of 38 nm, so there is great hope that it can be used to produce 14 nm chips and 7 nm chips.
Of course, in addition to relying on the technological progress of lithography machines, there is also a way to improve chip performance on the market, that is, chip stacking, that is, stacking two chips together, so as to achieve the purpose of improving chip performance. this route has been proved feasible.
