China has almost achieved “basic self-sufficiency” in chip production equipment

Despite the sanctions policies of the United States and Western countries, China is actively developing the semiconductor industry. The head of silicon wafer etching equipment company AMEC, Gerald Yin Zhiyao, said that China could achieve “basic self-sufficiency” in the production of equipment for chips this summer, but it is 5-10 years behind in quality and reliability, writes SCMP resource.

Image source: amec-inc.com

«I thought it would take us at least 10 years to find a solution, but with the combined efforts of hundreds of companies over the past two years, we will be able to achieve basic self-sufficiency this summer,” said Yin, 80, who previously worked at Intel, Lam Research and Applied Materials.

The US has been increasing sanctions pressure on China’s chip manufacturing sector since October 2022, when it first restricted equipment exports to Chinese advanced chip makers. Last October, the United States further tightened export control rules by banning ASML from selling more lithography systems for producing chips to Chinese customers.

The imposed restrictions forced Chinese suppliers to unite to find growth areas, which opened up new opportunities for them. According to the AMEC chief, currently 60% of the parts used in his company’s etching equipment are sourced domestically. And the share of locally sourced components in its chemical vapor deposition equipment for organometallic compounds reaches 80%.

At the same time, Yin noted that in the chip production equipment sector, China is still far behind world leaders. According to his estimates, domestic equipment at Chinese chip factories accounts for 15 to 30%, the rest is foreign. Among the weaknesses of Chinese firms, Yin named lithography systems, ion implantation equipment and electron beam inspection systems.