3 ms·
What is most surprising to me is that Chinese companies have not yet successfully stolen the IP yet. Why is this? I guess the same is true with TSMC and its cut
by next_xibalba 3y ago
What is most surprising to me is that Chinese companies have not yet successfully stolen the IP yet. Why is this? I guess the same is true with TSMC and its cutting edge chips. Do these companies just have better security, or is it the nature of the tech?
- yladiz 3y agoMy guess is the latter. Some of the things that ASML makes are extremely challenging to manufacture, even if you know how to do it (certain pieces of the EUV systems), as well as things that come from other companies like the mirrors from Zeiss. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if China has some stolen IP, but I don’t think it would be that helpful given the above.
- audunw 3y agoAs far as I know they never got a single machine. So they can’t easily reverse engineer it. They’re struggling already just to copy the previous generation DUV machines, and that’s while having a bunch of machines they can study and copy. A lot of technology you can’t really just copy it. You need the whole supply chain and expert support around it. Like with EUV they’d need someone like Zeiss to make the mirrors. Even the parts holding the mirrors are extremely niche and extremely hard to make. SMIC could copy older TSMC tech because they could buy the same machines and poach engineers from TSMC. That’s just not viable for EUV.