CHINA BUILDS EARLY SUB-3NM GAA TRANSISTORS USING OLDER DUV LITHOGRAPHY, SIDESTEPPING EUV RESTRICTIONS

Summary from the TLDR Hardware newsletter

Chinese Academy of Sciences researchers have completed early integration of stacked nanosheet-channel gate-all-around (GAA) CMOS transistors, the architecture already used by Samsung and TSMC at 3nm and below, using deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography instead of the EUV machines ASML is barred from selling to China. GAA wraps the gate fully around the channel rather than surrounding it on three sides like FinFET, giving tighter control over current flow. Researcher Ye Tianchun frames the work as an early process route toward sub-3nm devices rather than a demonstrated production capability.