# Canon joins forces with the Japanese government and others for advanced chipmaking production



## Canon Rumors Guy (Mar 24, 2021)

> Canon has partnered with Tokyo Electron and Screen Semiconductor Solutions to develop advanced chipmaking production technology with support from the Japanese government according to a report by Nikkei Asia.
> The $386mil USD funding from the Japanese government is through the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, along with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).
> Japans semiconductor production industry has lost ground in recent years to Taiwanese chipmakers and companies like Intel.
> The goal is to develop and implement a 2-nanometer or smaller process for chips by the mid-2020s.



Continue reading...


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## TAF (Mar 24, 2021)

Making for an even better DIGIC chip...with lower heat generation (hopefully).


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## BeenThere (Mar 24, 2021)

A worthy goal, but a bit optimistic with current best technology at 5 nano meters.


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## David - Sydney (Mar 24, 2021)

Intel struggling to get their 7nm production operating well and committing USD20b in a couple of new fabs to get down to 5nm and TSMC moving from 5 to 4 to 3 over time.... The money thrown at the Japanese fabs of 2nm in 4 years would seem to be too small and difficulties too much.


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## usern4cr (Mar 25, 2021)

This is great news for Japan's R & D. It's good to hear they're not giving up and having China do their manufacturing.

If they think they can get results at 2nm for that price, I'd be willing to bet that they can pull it off within that price, with maybe some extra for unforseen issues. If Canon happens to come out with even better sensors & processors because of it, then we'll also be the beneficiaries of it. 

Now, if only the US had the foresight to do something like this ...


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 25, 2021)

Canon is selling lithography equipment, its very expensive and difficult to improve so why not use someone elses money to do it.


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## J’s Pic (Mar 25, 2021)

Canon has zero market share in advance Lithography. 
When I lived and worked in Japan (late 90’s) Canon and Nikon and even ultratech all had fair share. NEC was #2 in semiconductor revenue. 
The industry has changed. 
Latest immersion scanners / i193 it is mostly ASML ...with Zeiss lenses. Strong manufacturing engineering control makes them better than Canon or Nikon. For the latest technology / EUV, the 400M$ is noise....Intel alone invested 4B$ in ASML....each tool is >100M$.
Sony, Canon and to some extend Kioxia are just small niche players...this 400M$ won’t change that...


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## Berowne (Mar 25, 2021)

J’s Pic said:


> Canon has zero market share in advance Lithography.
> When I lived and worked in Japan (late 90’s) Canon and Nikon and even ultratech all had fair share. NEC was #2 in semiconductor revenue.
> The industry has changed.
> Latest immersion scanners / i193 it is mostly ASML ...with Zeiss lenses. Strong manufacturing engineering control makes them better than Canon or Nikon. For the latest technology / EUV, the 400M$ is noise....Intel alone invested 4B$ in ASML....each tool is >100M$.
> Sony, Canon and to some extend Kioxia are just small niche players...this 400M$ won’t change that...



TWINSCAN NXT:2000i


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## jvillain (Mar 25, 2021)

BeenThere said:


> A worthy goal, but a bit optimistic with current best technology at 5 nano meters.


TSMC is expected to hit full production on 3nm this year.


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## BeenThere (Mar 26, 2021)

jvillain said:


> TSMC is expected to hit full production on 3nm this year.


2 nm is just 10 atoms wide on average. Getting to the point where quantum effects become more important.


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## J’s Pic (Mar 26, 2021)

There is nothing 5, 3 or 2nm in these devices...it’s all marketing.
bit like Sony‘s camera’s


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## dolina (Mar 27, 2021)

Canon Rumors Guy said:


> Continue reading...


DIGIC that's 2nm would be awesome 

I may even buy a body just for that!


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## tmroper (Mar 29, 2021)

Given the changing nature of China's Taiwan policy, this is a very good idea geopolitically, too. And is Sony a part of this effort, too?


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## tmroper (Mar 29, 2021)

J’s Pic said:


> There is nothing 5, 3 or 2nm in these devices...it’s all marketing.
> bit like Sony‘s camera’s


These devices are composed of atoms, all of which are less than 2nm.


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## DennisHuiberts (Mar 31, 2021)

Make that >150M Euro for an ASML NXE3400C (high volume manufacturing for <7nm nodes) and >225M Euro for an ASML EXE5000 (high volume manufacturing for <5nm nodes, release plan for 2023). Canon has never been a big player in the semiconductor market. Nikon did good with its ArFi systems in the past (and had a lot of patent disputes with ASML), but no other player but ASML has done better at <193nm wavelength lithography for high volume manufacturing. 4 years time frame to get to a <2nm patterning process (without an enormous amount of multi-patterning) is just wishful thinking. No matter how much the Japanese government is willing to spend.


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