20251231 ■ Asia_Times-20251219-Made-in-China EUV machine targets AI chip output by 2028【by Jeff Pao】
URL https://asiatimes.com/2025/12/made-in-china-euv-machine-targets-ai-chip-output-by-2028/
Asia Times
Made-in-China EUV machine targets AI chip output by 2028
by
December 19, 2025
Chinese scientists are using alternative methods to build extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines. Credit: ASML
China has reportedly built an extreme‑ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machine inside a high‑security laboratory in Shenzhen, in what sources described as a nationally coordinated push to overcome the most tightly held chokepoint in advanced chipmaking.
The machine is described as operational and capable of generating EUV light, though it has yet to produce functional chips, Reuters reported. Sources said Beijing is targeting 2028 for chip production, though they suggested that 2030 is a more realistic milestone.
The report said Huawei is playing a central role, coordinating a web of companies and state research institutes across the country involving thousands of engineers. Sources compared the effort to China’s version of the Manhattan Project, the top‑secret US wartime program that mobilized scientists, industry and the state to develop the atomic bomb in 1942-1947.
Sources told Reuters that the prototype EUV machine was completed in early 2025 and is now undergoing testing. The report said the machine fills nearly an entire factory floor and was assembled by a team that included former engineers from Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML.
According to Chinese media, two teams of scientists are working in parallel to develop EUV light sources for high-end chip production.
One team is led by Lin Nan, a former ASML engineer who is currently a professor at the School of Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering at Beihang University. Zhao Yongpeng, a professor at Harbin Institute of Technology, leads the other team. Both teams use solid-state lasers to heat and vaporize tin droplets for EUV light generation, while ASML uses CO2 lasers supplied by its US-based subsidiary, Cymer.
It is unclear whether Lin is in charge of the top-secret laboratory in Shenzhen. Before this, some Chinese media had reported in March this year that Huawei was testing a customized EUV machine at a factory in Dongguan, Guangdong.
They said Harbin Institute of Technology was responsible for the light source, the Changchun Institute of Optics for optical systems, and Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group (SMEE) for overall integration.
Huawei and Shenzhen state-backed firm SiCarrier were also deeply involved, coordinating more than 3,000 researchers across lithography, deposition and etching equipment development.
The Global Times, a newspaper aligned with the Chinese Communist Party, on Friday published a commentary titled “There is no need for Reuters to be anxious about China’s technological progress.”
The article argued that the Reuters report, which relied heavily on unnamed sources, reflected Western unease rather than facts, portraying lithography machines as a supposed final stronghold of Western technological dominance.
However, tt did not deny the existence of a high-security EUV research laboratory in Guangdong. The state-aligned newspaper said China has long pursued domestic alternatives to imported lithography tools, citing officially disclosed progress in deep ultraviolet (DUV) machines, and described Beijing’s technology strategy as one of self-reliance paired with continued openness to international cooperation.
The commentary said export controls had not slowed China’s technological advance, but instead spurred domestic innovation. It argued that China’s breakthroughs would benefit humanity and coexist with openness and cooperation, warning that efforts to block China could fragment global technology supply chains.
China’s ongoing research
After the United States moved in 2019 to block sales of ASML’s extreme ultraviolet lithography machines to China, Beijing began pouring substantial resources into domestic lithography development. However, parts of the effort have been weakened by inefficiency and corruption scandals in the semiconductor sector.
Lin’s own career trajectory illustrates both the talent Beijing has sought to mobilize and the opacity surrounding the EUV project.
In April 2021, Lin left the Netherlands, where he had worked as a scientist at ASML Research since October 2015, to take up a post as deputy director at the State Key Laboratory of Ultra-Intense Laser Science and Technology at the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). In October this year, he joined Beihang University.
“We have experienced unauthorized misappropriation of data relating to proprietary technology by a (now) former employee in China,” ASML said in its 2022 annual report. “We promptly initiated a comprehensive internal review. Based upon our initial findings, we do not believe that the misappropriation is material to our business.”
The company added that the incident may have involved violations of export control regulations and said it had reported the matter to relevant authorities.
There is no evidence that Lin was the former employee referenced in ASML’s disclosure. Publicly available information also does not indicate that Lin relocated to Shenzhen or has any formal connection with Huawei’s reported EUV program.
However, his current research clearly builds on the expertise he has accumulated over more than five years at ASML’s research division, particularly in laser-based EUV light generation. Lin, a CCP member, was a student of Anne l’Huillier, the 2023 Nobel Prize laureate for Physics.
In December 2024, Lin and his team published an academic paper reporting a conversion efficiency (CE) of 3.42% in an experiment aimed at generating EUV light. The paper was published in March 2025 by the Chinese Laser Press, an academic journal.
The paper noted that even the Advanced Research Center for Nanolithography (ARCNL) achieved only 3.2% CE in a comparable experiment in 2019. Higher conversion efficiency means less energy is required to produce usable EUV light, making it easier to transition from laboratory experiments to practical lithography systems.
Lin’s team said, theoretically, the CE would reach 6% in the future, meeting the commercial standard of 5.5%.
According to the paper, the team used a Nd:YAG (neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet) 1,064-nanometer laser with a maximum pulse energy of 600 millijoules to heat and vaporize molten tin droplets, producing EUV radiation. The laser device’s power is similar to that used for tattoo removal and fungal nail treatment.
A Hebei-based columnist surnamed Li addresses the question of why Lin’s team used a solid-state laser rather than replicating ASML’s approach of using a high-power CO₂ laser.
“Solid-state lasers are already widely deployed in industrial applications in China, which accounts for about 34% of global patent filings in the field,” he says. “Choosing this technological route allows researchers to build on existing industrial strengths while avoiding patent barriers linked to CO₂ laser systems, lowering the cost and risk of technology transfer.”
Zhao’s research team is reportedly using a solid-state laser to vaporize tin droplets, but with an added step that accelerates plasma formation by passing high-voltage electricity through an electrode disk. The approach, known as laser-assisted discharge-produced plasma (LDP), is designed to produce a stable, reliable EUV light source.
According to Chinese media, the EUV output of the Harbin system is around 100 watts, still well below ASML’s laser-produced plasma (LPP) process, which can deliver close to 600 watts of EUV power.
Some analysts noted that, due to underlying physics, Zhao’s LDP-based systems are challenging to scale to much higher power levels. This is why LDP is usually not used for chip lithography, but for applications such as photomask defect inspection and photoresist outgassing tests. ■
Read: China reportedly caught reverse-engineering ASML’s DUV lithography
Follow Jeff Pao on Twitter at @jeffpao3
