Canon’s alternative chip equipment likely subject to trade curbs to China

Canon has said it will be offering nano-imprinting lithography (NIL) at a lower price than ASML chip-making technology, potentially allowing smaller manufacturers to make leading-edge semiconductors, but the new chips are likely to face trade sanctions on China that have been enacted due to pressure from the US.

Nano-imprinting lithography is used as an alternative to ultraviolet (EUV) and deep ultraviolet (DUV) photolithography technology, which is used in the most advanced semiconductor device fabrication. 

Currently, Netherlands-based ASML is the only supplier of EUV and DUV technology, the world’s most advanced chipmaking machines that are used for mass-producing chips below 7nm. However, with the cost of EUV machines running into the hundreds of millions of dollars, EUV technology is inaccessible to many of the smaller players in the chip market.

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