Korva is a scroll of the internet’s best ideas.
Export controls reshaped the chip industry
An unintended effect
The Biden administration was careful and consistent in describing export controls as a tool for national security concerns and nothing to do with industrial policy. Whatever the intent, the effect reached the industry. Arguably the most important structural shaper of global semiconductors right now is that China does not have access to EUV technology.
The alternative
Picture the alternative. Huawei would be churning out very good five-nanometer chips on EUV machines from ASML, and TSMC and Intel would be competing with Huawei for those same machines. Samsung's and Intel's prospects would look very different.
A case for integration
That effect makes a case for revisiting the separation and building an integrated strategy, one where export controls count as part of the industrial policy toolkit. It also raises a second question: how comfortable the country is with using the power of the state coercively to get what it wants.
Why is EUV so hard to build?
An EUV machine makes light by firing a laser at tiny droplets of molten tin, turning them into plasma that emits light at 13.5 nanometers. That light is absorbed by air and by glass, so the machine works in a vacuum and uses mirrors in place of lenses. The mirrors are polished to near atomic smoothness. ASML is the only company that sells EUV systems commercially.
Why do small chip features need EUV?
The smallest feature a machine can print depends on the wavelength of its light. Older deep ultraviolet machines use light at 193 nanometers, while EUV uses 13.5. Chipmakers can push deep ultraviolet tools to finer features by exposing a layer several times, which adds steps, time, and cost. Every extra pass also gives defects another chance to appear.
How can export controls shape an industry?
A control that blocks one country from a tool also shapes who can compete with the companies that already have it. Firms with access face fewer rivals for the same equipment. The supplier's output sets the pace at which any buyer can scale. ASML builds EUV systems in the tens per year.
More from The Lawfare Podcast
