One would expect that reverse engineering technologies wouldn’t be impossible.
The importance of these technologies for China is huge.
Moreover, they have a massive budget and probably also own a couple of ASML’s euv lithography machines.
Why is it that they cant remake these machines?
I heard some sources say that it might take them a decade.
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in short: lack of the right equipment, smaller high precision manufacturing sector in China, lack of knowledge on the manufacture of these machines, company secrets.
A couple of my colleagues work at ASML, one told me a story of the Chinese trying to find out how to make one. They disassembled the entire machine very carefully and then reassembled it, and it didn’t work. So even if they have the exact components, it is still extremely hard to assemble.
Now add that to the calibration equipment needed to start calibrating those machines, and it could take well over a decade to match what ASML has today, as designing a new model of these machines can take over 3 years in itself. Add to that the revisions and research that needs to be done, then even a decade would be generous.
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