Media365
The US-sanctioned company is working to patent a metal integration technique for manufacturing semiconductors, which allows narrow metal structures to be integrated using deep ultraviolet (DUV) technology even for “metal pitches below 21nm”, a feature required for 2nm-class chips.
The proposed solution offered a technical pathway to support a 2-nm process using older DUV technology, aiming to bypass US sanctions that block China’s access to the most advanced EUV tools from Dutch firm ASML.
The patent, currently pending, was originally submitted by Huawei in June 2022 and made public by China’s national intellectual property regulator in January this year. There is no evidence that the patent has been put to use.
Amid growing talk of China’s tech breakthroughs, a Chinese chip industry veteran argued that 14-nm logic chips could rival the performance of Nvidia’s 4-nm chips through integration with advanced memory and novel architecture.
Huawei declined to comment on the patent.
