Reuters reported on June 18 that U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told senior executives of Dutch lithography machine manufacturer ASML (ASML) in a series of meetings recently,The United States is concerned that one of the company's top chip manufacturing equipment may have flowed into China, thus violating relevant export control regulations led by the United States.The news was first disclosed by Bloomberg.
According to the report, Lutnik raised the above concerns during a meeting with the senior management of the Dutch company. ASML refuted this, emphasizing that the output of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems used to produce ultra-fine chip circuits is extremely limited, and requires continuous maintenance by ASML engineers throughout its life cycle, so the flow of equipment is highly controllable.
According to reports, ASML's most advanced EUV system is equivalent in size to a school bus and weighs about 180 tons. It is regarded as a key "stuck neck" equipment in the current high-end chip manufacturing industry chain. An ASML spokesperson was quoted by Bloomberg as saying: "ASML has never sold any EUV lithography machines to China, nor has it exported any components, modules or equipment specifically designed for EUV equipment to China."
Regarding relevant reports and claims, the U.S. Department of Commerce, ASML and the White House did not immediately respond when contacted by Reuters outside normal office hours. Reuters previously reported in December last year that a Chinese scientific research team developed an EUV prototype with the participation of several former ASML engineers. This was described as China's "Manhattan Project"-style research project in the field of high-end chip manufacturing.