US tightens export controls on lithography, etch, HBM memory
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The US government has tightened export controls on AI chip technology as well as high speed HBM memories.
The rules from the US department of commerce include new export controls on 24 types of semiconductor manufacturing equipment and three types of software tools for developing or producing semiconductors as well as new controls on high-bandwidth memory (HBM).
The package of rules announced by the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is expressly intended to hit China’s capability to produce advanced-node semiconductors that can be used in the next generation of advanced weapon systems and in artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing.
140 entities have also been added to the list of organisations that the US says have been buying technology from smaller companies with key technologies.
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The new controls, due to come into force at the end of the year, are on semiconductor manufacturing equipment needed to produce advanced-node integrated circuits, including certain etch, deposition, lithography, ion implantation, annealing, metrology and inspection, and cleaning tools. This includes the equipment for through silicon vias (TSVs) and for low resistance 2D materials beyond molybdenum and ruthenium that are being proposed for sub-2nm chip process technologies.
There are also additional controls on software tools for developing or producing advanced-node integrated circuits, including software that increases the productivity of advanced machines or allows less-advanced machines to produce advanced chips.
The controls on HBM apply to memory devices made in the US, which would be from Micro Technology, as well as foreign-produced HBM subject to export restrictions under the advanced computing Foreign Direct Product (FDP) rule. Certain HBM will be eligible for authorization under a new license exception.
“The United States has taken significant steps to protect our technology from being used by our adversaries in ways that threaten our national security. As technology evolves, and our adversaries seek new ways to evade restrictions, we will continue to work with our allies and partners to proactively and aggressively safeguard our world-leading technologies and know-how so they aren’t used to undermine our national security,” said National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
“We are constantly talking to our allies and partners as well as reassessing and updating our controls. Today’s announcement represents the next step in that ongoing work,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez. “This package is proactive and innovative in how we are responding to increasingly sophisticated actors and complex supply chains. We must ensure that we stay ahead of the PRC by protecting our advanced technology.”
The export controls are a further step to address the Chinese moves to develop a leading edge sovereign supply chain that can be used for both civilian and military applications, says the US.
“The PRC’s Military-Civil Fusion strategy presents a significant risk that advanced node semiconductors will be used in military applications that threaten the security of the United States, as well as the security of our allies and partners,” said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration Thea Rozman Kendler. “These rules build on previous actions taken in service of our longstanding goal: protecting our collective security by constraining the PRC’s ability to indigenize the most advanced technologies, without unduly interfering with the continuing trade of technology.”
European equipment supplier ASM International said the additional restrictions were in line with expectations.
“These regulations are largely in line with our previous assumptions. We continue to expect that equipment sales in China will drop in the second half of 2024 compared to the exceptionally strong level in the first half, with Q4 2024 sales below the level of Q3 2024. We also reconfirm our expectation that for the first half of 2025 sales in China will show a further moderate decrease compared to the second half of 2024, and that for the full year 2025 sales in China will be lower year on year,” it said.
“The new US export control regulations are also expected to impact other segments and equipment categories in which our company is not active, and as such there could be an indirect impact to ASM. It is too early to predict what such an indirect impact, if any, on our business would be.”
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