Following the publication of the revised Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act in March 2023, the Japanese government on May 23 announced to impose export restrictions on 23 items of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, effective July 23. Based on DIGITIMES Research's observations, although the list includes equipment for photolithography, etching, thin film deposition, thermal processing, cleaning, inspection and other key semiconductor manufacturing processes, Japan is more likely to control the export of photolithography or thin film deposition equipment for advanced processes, which will hinder China's progress in advanced semiconductor manufacturing technologies.
As China, in the past several years, consistently imported over 60% of its semiconductor manufacturing equipment from the US, Japan and the Netherlands, these countries agreeing to impose export controls together will effectively set back China's semiconductor industry development. As such, the US, Japan and the Netherlands came to a deal to curb semiconductor manufacturing equipment exports to China in late January 2023, leading to Japan's recent announcement of its semiconductor equipment export control policies.
DIGITIMES Research's report on the export control shows that nearly half of the items that Japan plans to impose export controls over are related to thin film deposition equipment, which is used by a wide range of processes and believes that cobalt (Co) and ruthenium (Ru) interconnect deposition equipment used for advanced processes, atomic layer deposition (ALD) equipment for sub-40nm processes and hard mask deposition equipment for multi-patterning will be among the first to be subject to Japan's export controls.
With respect to photolithography equipment, the export of immersion DUV lithography systems may also be restricted. Since Japan does not make EUV lithography systems, its export controls will be placed on EUV mask deposition equipment, coating and developing equipment in EUV lithography processes as well as defect inspection systems for mask blanks or masks ready for exposure.
