SMEE / SiCarrier lithography effort
China's domestic litho program aiming at DUV immersion and beyond
China's lithography self-sufficiency runs through SMEE and the Huawei-linked SiCarrier, targeting domestic DUV immersion tools (28nm and finer) and long-horizon EUV research. As of 2025-2026 China has no production EUV and only nascent domestic immersion DUV, making this the deepest bottleneck in the entire chain and the main constraint on scaling Ascend-class chips.
Gap
No production EUV/immersion DUV
Players
SMEE, SiCarrier
How it fits the stack
SMEE / SiCarrier lithography effort with what it depends on (above) and what it feeds (below). The figure renders as a crawlable diagram and upgrades to an interactive 3D graph as it scrolls into view.
SMEE / SiCarrier lithography effort in the AI stack. SMEE / SiCarrier lithography effort with its immediate upstream dependencies (top) and downstream dependents (bottom) in the AI value chain. Hover a node in 3D, or read the full relationships below.
Graph data (text) — 4 entities, 3 relationships
- SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp) —depends on→ SMEE / SiCarrier lithography effort
- SMEE / SiCarrier lithography effort —competes with→ ASML Holding
- SMEE / SiCarrier lithography effort —invests in→ National IC Fund (Big Fund III)
Context — capital, rivals, policy · · 2