China DUV lithography machines have reportedly moved into mass production, a milestone Beijing has been chasing while U.S. and Dutch export controls squeeze its chip industry. The Information, citing two people familiar with the program, reported that a state-backed company in Shanghai plans to deliver its first immersion deep ultraviolet lithography systems this year to Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., Hua Hong Semiconductor and ChangXin Memory Technologies.
The manufacturer was not named in the report. The people cited by The Information described a program that drew DUV engineering teams from multiple Chinese companies, including Shanghai Yuliangsheng Technology, a state-backed startup. SMIC has been testing an immersion tool from Yuliangsheng since September 2025, according to earlier reporting.
The planned scale is still small by global semiconductor equipment standards. The reported targets are about five machines in 2026 and around 20 in 2027. The Information also reported that most parts in the systems are made in China, although some critical components still come from Japan, and that delays among domestic suppliers have already slowed production this year.
What are China DUV lithography machines?
Immersion DUV lithography machines are chipmaking scanners that use deep ultraviolet light to print circuit patterns on wafers. The technology can produce 28nm-class features with one exposure and can be pushed to 7nm through multipatterning, although that adds overlay errors and can hurt yield.
That tradeoff is why this is a big deal, even if the first Chinese systems lag the market leader. DUV does not replace extreme ultraviolet lithography for the most advanced manufacturing, but it remains essential for mainstream logic and memory production. China has been trying to keep older ASML DUV tools productive while building alternatives that are harder for Washington to choke off.
The timing lines up awkwardly for ASML and neatly for Chinese fabs. U.S. House Resolution 8170, the MATCH Act, would put SMIC, Hua Hong, CXMT, Huawei and Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. into law as restricted entities. The bill, introduced in April and reported out of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on April 22, also has a Senate companion, S. 4281.
The MATCH Act provisions described in the report would cover ASML servicing and technical help, not only new equipment sales. That matters because Chinese fabs already run installed ASML tools and have been extending their usefulness through secondary-channel upgrades. The three reported first customers for the domestic scanner are among the companies that would be affected.
ASML remains far ahead. Chief financial officer Roger Dassen told analysts on the company’s July earnings call that ASML expects to ship about 130 immersion systems in 2026, roughly flat with 2025. He also said ASML plans to increase immersion capacity by 30% in 2027 and is studying another 30% increase for 2028. China represents about 20% of ASML’s net sales this year, down from 33% in 2025, mainly because of mainstream logic demand.
Independent analysis is more cautious than the political mood music around a domestic breakthrough. The AI Futures Project said in June that commercial-scale Chinese immersion DUV production was likely in the mid-2030s and estimated ASML’s share of the immersion market at 98.7%. The new Chinese tools may take many months to qualify on production lines, and they reportedly trail ASML systems in performance and build quality.
China’s domestic EUV effort is further out. Reuters reported in December that China had a working EUV prototype, but the effort remains years from production use, according to the reporting cited here. For now, domestic immersion DUV is the nearer and more practical fight.
This story draws on original reporting from Tom's Hardware.
