SMIC has an R&D team dedicated to making 3nm chips using DUV lithography
SMIC is allowed to take delivery of this ASML DUV lithography machine
SMIC is the nation’s fifth-largest contract foundry in the world and has been relying on ASML’s Twinscan NXT:2000i DUV lithography machine. Using double patterning, a foundry like SMIC can use a DUV machine to produce 7nm chips; SMIC is reportedly using triple, quadruple, and even quintuple patterning in an attempt to to get to 3nm without an EUV lithography machine.
Every time the U.S. thinks it has pinned Huawei, the company escapes
The U.S. sanctions against Huawei and SMIC could end up being considered a massive failure. SMIC can now make 7nm 5G chipsets and it has one of the most brilliant minds in the industry trying to figure out how to build 3nm silicon using older technology. Every time the U.S. thought it had Huawei pinned, the company managed to escape. Consider this, placed on the U.S. Entity List, Huawei was banned from doing business with Google. So it replaced the Google Mobile Services version of Android with its homegrown HarmonyOS.
If SMIC can develop 3nm chips using DUV, which is a long shot to be sure, U.S. officials and lawmakers are going to be besides themselves looking for some way to stop the momentum.