Meet AMIES, China’s new hope in breaking reliance on ASML’s chipmaking machines

AMIES Technology, a new Chinese lithography equipment manufacturer that showcased its latest chipmaking products at an industry event in Shenzhen last week, is offering renewed optimism in the nation’s drive to reduce its dependence on Dutch giant 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 US export controls.

Founded in February, AMIES is a spin-off from China’s leading lithography company, the state-owned Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (SMEE). While SMEE focuses on developing essential front-end tools, AMIES aims to commercialise equipment more swiftly, according to Chinese media reports, citing company representatives.

US-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 90-nanometre 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.