Remember when ASML’s CEO predicted US bans on EUV would set China’s chip industry back a decade or more? That prediction is aging like milk. While the West was busy celebrating its own supposed genius and locking down advanced EUV tech, Huawei-linked SiCarrier is reportedly gearing up to crash the party, eyeing 5nm chip production using clever DUV techniques. Specifically, they’re leveraging self-aligned quadruple patterning (SAQP), a technology for which they secured patents last year—likely the same magic behind Huawei’s shocking 7nm chip in the Mate 60 Pro that sent shockwaves in Washington. Meanwhile, poor ASML is whining about maybe having to flee the Netherlands because of nitrogen rules and housing shortages—peak European problems while China builds empires.
Born from Huawei’s Starlight Engineering Department in the wake of US restrictions, SiCarrier has achieved in just four years what many thought impossible. Their showcase included critical tools across the entire manufacturing flow: deposition (CVD, PVD, and ALD targeting 5nm), advanced etching (reportedly matching Lam’s performance), optical inspection, sophisticated metrology (including atomic force microscopy and X-ray analysis), and electrical testing platforms, representing a strategic push towards a complete, 100% domestic WFE supply chain capable of supporting advanced node production and circumventing the US-enforced EUV blockade imposed on ASML since 2019 by pushing DUV lithography towards the 5nm benchmark.
SiCarrier possesses the capability to equip fabs for advanced logic, DRAM, 3D NAND, and even SiC/GaN power chips—all without relying on sanctioned Western technology. So, while the US tried to block the front door (EUV access), China kicked down the side door (advanced DUV/SAQP). The Western thought process seems to have been: 1. Block EUV. 2. Assume China’s best minds would consequently get stuck trying to invent fire again. 3. Be genuinely surprised when they don’t, and instead engineer a different solution using the other advanced tools they have. But there’s more! Huawei’s known parallel efforts in developing homegrown EUV machines are also underway. Leaks from tech insiders suggest a Chinese EUV system using LDP tech is already being tested (possibly even at Huawei!), potentially hitting mass production by 2026.
Of course, the usual suspects will scoff. Nikkei, likely fed lines by nervous Western sources, tries to downplay SiCarrier, suggesting they’re only managing 28nm and commercialization is “uncertain.” Right. Just like Huawei’s 7nm chip was “impossible” until it was suddenly powering millions of phones. Bloomberg grudgingly admits SAQP could boost density and performance using older DUV, potentially even being cheaper than EUV—a terrifying thought for ASML’s bottom line.
Sure, they might “lack years of know-how” on paper, but Huawei’s track record proves that gap closes terrifyingly fast when survival and national pride are on the line. For now, SiCarrier will feed the beast within China—Huawei, SMIC, and others. But it’s only a matter of time before their gear gets good enough and cheap enough to tempt international buyers sick of US export games. The slow bleed for Western WFE giants has already begun. ASML’s EUV reign might last just a little longer.
ASML might think its EUV moat is deep and its future secure, but maybe they should worry less about Chinese competition and more about whether the Netherlands can even provide enough electricity, housing, or nitrogen permits for their current expansion plans. While China relentlessly builds its tech independence, ASML might get kneecapped by Dutch bureaucracy.
