China's immersion DUV breakthrough could narrow chip gap, but EUV remains out of reach
China has begun mass production of domestically developed immersion deep-ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines, which could help it produce more advanced chips than the Kirin 9030 Pro. However, analysts say the technology still lags behind extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, which remains restri
The Kirin 9030 Pro processor, launched in late 2025, was the most advanced chip made in China. Designed by Huawei and manufactured by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), it powered Huawei's flagship Mate 80 Pro smartphones. Despite the advances, semiconductor research firm SemiAnalysis said the chip's performance was akin to that of a three-year-old flagship Android phone, and its architecture was "several generations" behind chips from Apple, Samsung and Qualcomm.
China is now turning to immersion deep-ultraviolet (DUV) lithography to narrow the gap. The country is said to have begun mass production of domestically developed immersion DUV machines, which could eventually enable Chinese chipmakers to produce chips more advanced than the Kirin 9030 Pro. Immersion DUV uses 193-nanometre light with a layer of purified water between the lens and the wafer to focus the light more, allowing smaller patterns to be printed.
Economist and international relations analyst Samirul Ariff Othman of Global Asia Consultant told CNA that immersion DUV could "plug an important hole" in China's semiconductor production architecture, but it is not a substitute for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology. ASML in the Netherlands is the sole manufacturer of EUV lithography machines, which use a shorter 13.5-nanometre light. Due to export restrictions, the US and its allies have access to EUV technology, but China does not.
Samirul noted that the ability to scale production of immersion DUV machines is key. "The challenge now shifts from 'can China build one?' to 'can China manufacture them reliably, improve them continuously and achieve competitive yields?'," he said. He added that immersion DUV requires several patterning and processing steps, which may lead to higher chances of alignment errors, defects and lower yields compared to EUV.
To reduce dependence on foreign technology, China has been accelerating investments in domestic capabilities across chip design, manufacturing, packaging and equipment. Huawei focuses on chip design, SMIC on foundry, Yangtze Memory Technologies on NAND flash memory, and ChangXin Memory Technologies on DRAM. Neil Shah, co-founder and vice president at Hong Kong-headquartered Counterpoint Research, said China has gone "wide faster than it has gone deep". On mature-process chipmaking nodes, China has already become a price setter, squeezing margins across the industry.
Shah acknowledged that US export controls slowed China's progress at the top end in the short term, particularly in AI and leading-edge technologies. However, he said Beijing can continue funding the domestic chipmaking industry without worrying about returns on investment, turning the effort into a sovereign self-sufficiency project. "That's the major difference versus Western firms, and a good luxury to have when no investor is questioning every dollar of the bottom line. In effect, it's made them partly immune to the very sanctions meant to constrain them," Shah said.
Asked what China's tech push means for consumers, Samirul suggested that if Chinese firms achieve competitive real-world performance through alternative paths, consumers could benefit from lower prices and innovation from competition. However, he warned that tech fragmentation could create two increasingly incompatible semiconductor ecosystems, duplicated investment and reduced economies of scale, potentially raising costs. "So consumers could experience both effects simultaneously: greater competition within technological blocs, but less efficiency across the global economy," Samirul said.
