Dutch defense ministry wants important chip making equipment kept out of China | Pirate Tech

With billions and billions of transistors inside chips, the job of etching circuitry patterns thinner than human hair onto a silicon wafer belongs to the acute ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machine. The dimensions of every EUV lithography machine is about equal to that of a college bus and every one carries a price ticket of $150 million. Proper now, just one firm on the planet produces these machines and that’s Dutch agency ASML.

Huawei lately filed a patent utility to guard its personal EUV parts

The recommendation despatched to the international ministry stated, “From the attitude of the Dutch army and safety pursuits within the mid-to-long-term it’s of significance … that ASML not be granted any export allow for the supply of EUV machines to China and that this distinctive expertise be protected as a lot as doable.” ASML has not shipped one EUV machine to China which is why SMIC, China’s largest foundry, is a number of generations behind the 3nm chips at present being produced by TSMC and Samsung Foundry.

The U.S. revised its export rule in 2020 to stop foundries utilizing American expertise to make chips from sending such chips to Huawei. On the time, Huawei was TSMC’s second-largest buyer after Apple. For final yr’s Mate 50 flagship line, Huawei acquired permission to make use of Snapdragon chips however solely after assist for 5G was disabled. The P60 collection, rumored to be unveiled in March, will reportedly use the Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 chips, once more, with 5G assist disabled.

The story within the Dutch newspaper was revealed simply because the Dutch authorities has been weighing the position of extra restrictions on China that will additional restrict gross sales from ASML to the nation. At the moment 15% of ASML’s prime line comes from gross sales to China.

This previous October, the U.S. added extra restrictions on the export of chip-making gear to China, and the Netherlands are anticipated to observe swimsuit. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte stated final week that he expects to have a “good final result” from discussions with the U.S. after assembly with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington D.C.

The worry is that China will use cutting-edge chips to construct weapons

Nevertheless, Dutch commerce minister Liesje Schreinemacher says that she won’t merely copy U.S. guidelines. “I do know there’s a variety of strain internationally however I can be combating for open commerce and in opposition to protectionism,” she stated.

The letter from the Dutch protection ministry warning the federal government about permitting EUV gross sales to China stated, “The possibility {that a} NATO member state sooner or later should defend itself in opposition to independently produced weapons techniques would develop into a lot bigger if EUV machines are exported. As well as, our most vital strategic safety accomplice, the US, has made an pressing enchantment to the Netherlands to not export the EUV expertise to China.”