China faces steep technical hurdles in bid to build domestic lithography machines to rival ASML
By
CHENG TING-FANG, LAULY LI, SHUNSUKE TABETA JULY 16, 2025
Summary
This article examines China's ambitious goal to build its own advanced lithography machines — the critical equipment needed to manufacture cutting-edge semiconductors — in the face of US-led export restrictions targeting ASML, the Dutch company that dominates the global lithography market. It explores the immense technical complexity of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, which relies on a vast ecosystem of thousands of specialized suppliers worldwide, and assesses whether China can realistically replicate this capability domestically. The piece highlights the enormous engineering challenges, the gap in China's current capabilities, and the strategic implications for the global chip industry.
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Key quotes
· 2 pulledThis is a huge amount of competence, and different people work on different parts of the tool. Most of the time the people, for example, who worked on the light source don't know at all how the optic [system] is working, because these are very different domains of competence.
Basically bringing together a huge amount of competence, and different people work on different parts of the tool.
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