화웨이는 심자외선 리소그래피 장비의 국산화를 주도하며 연내 국내 12대 도입을 목표로 하고 있다.

Huawei is accelerating China’s drive for semiconductor equipment self-reliance by spearheading the domestic production of deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography systems. Moving beyond chip design and manufacturing, the company has now targeted lithography, which remains the most technically demanding segment of China’s semiconductor supply chain.

According to the Financial Times, Huawei is investing across the lithography sector to cultivate a domestic supply chain while facilitating contracts between local equipment makers and major foundries like SMIC. At the center of this initiative is U-Precision, a Shanghai-based startup founded in 2022 within the Pudong New Area.

U-Precision has co-developed China’s first advanced DUV lithography system, which is currently undergoing validation at SMIC, other domestic semiconductor firms, and Huawei’s own production facilities. The ultimate objective is to integrate the technology into advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip manufacturing. Ownership of the privately held firm is split evenly: Shanghai municipal government-affiliated venture capital holds 50%, while Chinese semiconductor equipment manufacturer SiCarrier holds the remainder. SiCarrier is wholly owned by a Shenzhen municipal government venture capital arm, and its founding team originates from Huawei’s precision equipment development division, prompting industry watchers to regard it as a de facto Huawei affiliate.

Working alongside Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (SMEE), China’s established lithography equipment maker, U-Precision is advancing multiple DUV prototypes and aims to deliver 12 units by year-end. Nevertheless, certain prototypes still depend on imported critical components, particularly projection lenses and light sources. Reports indicate that U-Precision’s current DUV systems utilize projection lenses sourced from Germany’s Zeiss, a supplier that officially sells lithography optics exclusively to ASML. This constraint has sparked speculation that Huawei may be sourcing these components through China’s secondary market.

To bridge this component shortfall, Huawei is making direct investments in critical parts manufacturers. Its corporate venture capital arm, Hubble, alongside the Huawei-backed Shenzhen Yuanzhi Xinghuo fund, has allocated capital to domestic firms specializing in projection lenses and high-power light sources.

In the projection lens space, both funds have backed Fujian Zichi Photonics, an ultra-precision optical components manufacturer that spun out of Chinese optical materials firm CasTech in 2022. For light sources, Hubble-backed Beijing RS Laser Optoelectronics is widely considered China’s top DUV light source developer. The company has previously supplied optics for legacy SMEE DUV tools and reportedly delivered high-energy laser light sources for the 28-nanometer (nm) immersion DUV system that SMEE debuted at SEMICON China 2026.

Despite these localization advances, a substantial gap persists before widespread commercial adoption. While major foundries including SMIC are actively purchasing and testing U-Precision’s DUV systems, mass production continues to rely heavily on ASML machinery. ASML’s latest financials underscore that China remains a vital market, even as its proportional share shrinks. In the second quarter of 2026, China represented 14% of ASML’s net system sales by shipment destination, a decline from 19% in the first quarter.

Lin Qingyuan, a semiconductor analyst at global research firm Bernstein, emphasizes that prototype availability alone is insufficient. Building a viable ecosystem requires thousands of suppliers and customers to advance in lockstep, necessitating a central coordinating entity. Under this assessment, U-Precision’s equipment will require years of rigorous validation and iterative refinement to reach ASML-level productivity.

Conversely, some analysts argue that US export controls may inadvertently accelerate domestic equipment localization. Lin projects that tightening restrictions could forge tighter collaboration between Chinese semiconductor manufacturers and homegrown equipment suppliers, potentially driving DUV technological advancement at a pace exceeding current expectations.

China has systematically built out its semiconductor ecosystem around Huawei, leveraging SMIC for foundry services, ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) for DRAM, and Naura and AMEC for etch and deposition equipment. Domestic lithography capability would complete this framework, enabling China to manufacture a substantial share of its chips using entirely homegrown technology, barring the most advanced nodes that still require extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography.

Separately, Reuters reported in late July that the state-owned Shanghai IC R&D Center is merging the U-Precision and SMEE engineering teams. The revised roadmap targets the production of roughly five units in 2026 and 20 units in 2027, with the newly announced year-end goal of 12 units marking a clear upward revision from previous projections.

Should DUV equipment supply chains stabilize, domestic semiconductor leaders like SMIC and CXMT will gain the ability to source expansion-critical hardware locally. Over the long term, this shift could bolster domestic DRAM and NAND flash output, intensifying competitive pressure on South Korean memory giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.