Huawei invests in the world's third-largest 193nm ArF excimer laser technology company

As we all know, the equipment that seriously restricts the progress of domestic chip manufacturing technology is the lithography machine, because the most advanced lithography machine in the world is ASML's EUV lithography machine, which is used for the production of chips at 7nm and below. Only ASML can produce. But it cannot be sold to mainland China.

The strongest domestic lithography machine produced by Shanghai Microelectronics is still at 90nm. According to industry insiders, the gap between us and ASML may have to be more than 10 years.

It is precisely because the EUV lithography machine is not available, our current chip manufacturing technology is still at 14nm, so the development of our lithography machine has become the top priority of the current chip market.

Recently, there was news that Huawei has also begun to deploy lithography machines. Hubble Investment, which specializes in investing in the semiconductor industry under Huawei, has officially invested in Beijing Keyi Hongyuan Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.

The shareholding is about 4.7619%, and the investment amount is about 10 million yuan. At present, the registered capital of Keyi Hongyuan has become 20 million yuan.

What is the origin of Keyi Hongyuan? It is the only company in China and the third company in the world with 193nm ArF excimer laser technology research and productization.

In 2018, the first domestic high-energy excimer laser independently designed and developed by Keyi Hongyuan was successfully shipped. It is currently the light source system supplier of domestic lithography machine manufacturer Shanghai Microelectronics.

In addition, Keyi Hongyuan also undertook national special projects such as "02 major special immersion lithography light source research and development", "02 major special project core component localization capacity building", "02 major special integrated circuit wafer defect detection light source" and other national special projects. It is said that it is currently the most powerful domestic manufacturer in the core technology of lithography machine light source.

Of course, there are many core components in the lithography machine, such as ASML's EUV lithography machine, which has more than 100,000 parts. The light source is only a part of it, but if you want to conquer the lithography machine, the light source is an essential part. The part that must be overcome is the core of the core.

Therefore, Huawei Hubble's investment in Keyi Hongyuan is obviously to increase the layout of the research and development in the field of lithography machines. After all, Huawei currently needs domestic chip manufacturing technology to rise.

Therefore, striving for domestic lithography machines to break through as soon as possible, catch up with or even exceed the level of ASML, then domestic chip manufacturing technology will make great progress.