Posts Tagged: chipmaking
Japan joins US-led effort to restrict China’s access to chipmaking equipment
Japan is officially moving forward with restrictions aimed at limiting China’s access to advanced chipmaking machinery. As CNN reports, the country announced Friday it would tighten export controls on 23 types of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Once the new rules take effect in July, companies like Nikon and Tokyo Electron will need to obtain approval from Japan’s trade ministry if they want to sell their tools in some 160 territories across the world. A Japanese government spokesperson told CNN the restrictions aren’t designed to target a specific nation. However, Japan’s east asian rival is among the nations on the restricted list.
“We will fulfill our responsibilities in the international community as a technology-owning country and contribute to maintaining international peace and security,” Yasutoshi Nishimura, Japan’s minister of economy, trade and industry, told reporters.
The restrictions follow the US and Netherlands enacting similar export controls. At the start of the year, the three countries reportedly reached an agreement to limit China’s access to western-made lithography machines. In March, the Netherlands made good on the deal, announcing it would restrict overseas sales of semiconductor technology in the interest of its national security. Those restrictions will affect ASML. As of last year, the Dutch firm was the only company in the world producing the extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines chipmakers need to make the 5nm and 3nm semiconductors that power the latest phones and computers.
China has homegrown firms capable of making up some of the shortfall the country’s tech industry will experience from the lack of access to western-made lithography equipment. However, it may take some time before those companies match the capacity of their American, Japanese and European rivals. According to research from Reuters, Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (SMEE), China’s only producer of lithography equipment, makes machines capable of printing 90nm node semiconductors. More promising is the work of SMIC, the country’s leading semiconductor manufacturer. Last summer, it began volume production of 14nm chips and began making 7nm chips without access to foreign-made equipment.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/japan-joins-us-led-effort-to-restrict-chinas-access-to-chipmaking-equipment-214602553.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
The White House’s $39 billion chip-making giveaway starts today
When President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law in 2022, it put $ 52 billion in tax credits and funding on the table to help bolster the semiconductor industry in the US, with $ 39 billion specifically earmarked for semiconductor manufacturing incentives. Now, we're starting to see how that initiative is going to play out: The Biden Administration has officially launched the first CHIPS for America funding opportunity, laying out the application process for "projects to construct, expand or modernize commercial facilities for the production of leading-edge, current-generation and mature-node semiconductors."
The "first" in first funding opportunity is the key word here: At the start, CHIPS for America is specifically looking to fund projects that align with the program's "vision for success" that seeks to have a number of leading-edge logic fabrication facilities and DRAM chip manufacturers by the end of the decade, as well as hitting specific production capacity goals for "current-generation and mature-node" semiconductors. The program plans to offer more funding opportunities for R&D and manufacturing equipment facilities at a later date. Applications for those programs won't launch until late Spring and Fall of 2023, but the CHIPS Program Office is open to receiving statements of interest from hopeful applicants.
The program also includes strict guardrails for how funding is used. Applicants who are awarded CHIPS funding will be prohibited from using the payments for stock buybacks or to pay out dividends, and payments will be tied to meeting specific milestones. It'll be awhile before the first recipients of CHIPS funding are announced, but hopeful projects can begin submitting applications on March 31, 2023. Want all the details? Check out the full CHIPS for America announcement right here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-white-houses-39-billion-chip-making-giveaway-starts-today-210717470.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
US, Netherlands and Japan reportedly agree to limit China’s access to chipmaking equipment
The Biden administration has reportedly reached an agreement with the Netherlands and Japan to restrict China’s access to advanced chipmaking machinery. According to Bloomberg, officials from the two countries agreed on Friday to adopt some of the same export controls the US has used over the last year to prevent companies like NVIDIA from selling their latest technologies in China. The agreement would reportedly see export controls imposed on companies that produce lithography systems, including ASML and Nikon.
Bloomberg reports the US, Netherlands and Japan don’t plan to announce the agreement publicly. Moreover, implementation could take “months” while the countries work to hammer out the legal details. “Talks are ongoing, for a long time already, but we don’t communicate about this. And if something would come out of this, it is questionable if this will be made very visible,” said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Friday, responding to a question about the negotiations.
According to Bloomberg, the agreement will cover “at least” some of ASML’s immersion lithography machines. As of last year, ASML was the only company in the world producing the extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines chipmakers need to make the 5nm and 3nm semiconductors that power the latest smartphones and computers. Cutting off China from ASML’s products is an effort by the Biden administration to freeze the country’s domestic chip industry. Last summer, Chinese state media reported that SMIC, China’s leading semiconductor manufacturer, had begun volume production of 14nm chips and had successfully started making 7nm silicon without access to foreign chip-making equipment. China has said SMIC is working on making 5nm semiconductors, but it’s unclear how the company will do that without access to EUV machines.