China has crossed a semiconductor milestone that many industry analysts considered years away. A state-affiliated company based in Shanghai has begun mass-producing immersion deep ultraviolet lithography machines, the advanced tools used to etch circuit patterns onto silicon wafers, according to reports from The Information.
The unnamed manufacturer aims to deliver five units this year and roughly 20 machines by 2027. First customers include China’s largest foundry SMIC, memory maker CXMT, and Hua Hong Semiconductor. While 20 machines would represent a fraction of what ASML produces annually – the Dutch company shipped 131 immersion DUV tools last year alone – the significance lies in the production capability itself, not the initial volume.
Immersion DUV lithography uses an argon-fluoride excimer laser to produce 193-nanometer wavelength light, which passes through a layer of ultra-purified water before imprinting circuit patterns onto a wafer. The technique is the backbone of advanced chip production at nodes down to 7 nanometers and, with multi-patterning, can reach 5 nanometers. Until now, the only commercial suppliers have been ASML and, to a much lesser extent, Nikon and Canon.
The breakthrough has been years in the making. SMIC began testing a domestic immersion DUV scanner built by Shanghai Yuliangsheng Technology, a startup with ties to Huawei and SiCarrier, in September 2025. The machine targets 28-nanometer class processes initially, though multi-patterning techniques could push it to finer nodes. Another domestic equipment maker, SMEE, has reportedly sold around ten units of its SSA800 series, which also targets 28-nanometer immersion lithography.
The production ramp arrives amid an accelerating US campaign to restrict China’s access to advanced chipmaking equipment. Washington previously focused its export controls on extreme ultraviolet lithography, the technology required for 5-nanometer and below. But US lawmakers proposed additional restrictions on DUV immersion tools in April 2026, recognizing that DUV equipment with multi-patterning can close much of the gap. The new domestic supply could blunt the impact of such controls.
Questions remain about the machines’ performance. ASML’s flagship TWINSCAN NXT:2150i processes over 310 wafers per hour and can reach 7 nanometers in a single pass. The Chinese systems’ throughput and precision specifications have not been disclosed, and the tools reportedly still rely on some imported Japanese components. For CXMT’s DRAM production, which operates at mature nodes, the performance gap matters less. But for SMIC’s ambitions to produce 5-nanometer class chips using self-aligned quadruple patterning, the tools will need to demonstrate yield and precision that have not yet been verified.
Sources: China begins mass production of homegrown immersion chipmaking machines (Tom’s Hardware, July 27, 2026); China Begins Limited Production of Domestic Immersion DUV Machines (TechPowerUp, July 27, 2026); China begins limited production of homegrown immersion DUV lithography machines (Crypto Briefing, July 27, 2026); China Starts Mass-Producing Homegrown DUV Chipmaking Tools (The Information, July 27, 2026)