AMIES Technology, a new Chinese lithography equipment manufacturer that showcased its latest chipmaking products at an industry event in Shenzhen, is offering renewed optimism to reduce China's dependence on Dutch firm ASML. Advanced lithography remains a significant bottleneck in China’s chipmaking ambitions. The country still trails far behind global leaders in the technology and is restricted from acquiring ASML’s top deep ultraviolet (DUV) and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) systems due to U.S. export controls. Founded in February, AMIES is a spin-off from China’s leading lithography company, state-owned Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (SMEE). While SMEE focuses on developing essential front-end tools, AMIES aims to commercialize equipment more swiftly, according to company representatives.
U.S.-sanctioned SMEE excels in back-end semiconductor processes like packaging, which often require less advanced lithography technology. When it comes to front-end wafer fabrication, however, it is still trying to catch up with Western leaders such as ASML. The Chinese company’s most reliable production-grade lithography tools are believed to support processes around the 90-nanometer node and above. In late 2023, its shareholder Zhangjiang Group briefly claimed on social media that SMEE had “successfully developed a 28-nm lithography machine”, but later retracted the reference. In contrast, ASML’s EUV systems are used by leading chipmakers for processes at 2-nm nodes and below. For now, AMIES said its flagship product is its advanced packaging lithography machine, which held a global market share of 35% and a 90% share in China.
On its website, AMIES lists four product lines: integrated circuits, advanced packaging, compound semiconductors and flat-panel displays, including various types of annealing, inspection, chip manufacturing and packaging tools. In August, the company said it shipped its 500th stepper lithography machine. Steppers expose chip patterns on wafers one section at a time, unlike scanners, which continuously move the mask and wafer for faster, more precise exposures.
AMIES received an award at the China International Industry Fair in September for its “next-generation fan-out packaging lithography system”. The company has received solid state support. AMIES’s nearly 30 shareholders include local government-backed funds such as Shanghai Information Investment, Spinnotec, the venture arms of Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park and Citic Group, alongside a number of private equity investors, according to the Chinese corporate database Tianyancha. AMIES said it had a technical team of 600 people, with an average age of 33, and 65% holding master’s or doctoral degrees, the South China Morning Post reports.
