Inside SMIC's N+3: 5 nm chips without EUV power Huawei's Kirin 9030

Chinese chipmaker SMIC has taken a visible step forward in building its own semiconductor base, starting volume production of 5 nm–class chips without EUV lithography. The new SMIC N+3 node is now the most advanced manufacturing process in China. TechInsights confirmed that Huawei’s Kirin 9030 is fabricated on this node, marking a significant milestone on the country’s path toward greater technological self-reliance.

N+3 effectively leapfrogs an entire generation over the earlier N+2, a 7 nm–class process previously used by Huawei for its Ascend AI accelerators and other infrastructure products. With N+3, the company reached higher transistor density despite lacking access to state-of-the-art EUV scanners restricted by export controls. That outcome alone suggests considerable process ingenuity under tight constraints.

Skipping EUV comes at a cost. Instead of extreme ultraviolet, SMIC relies on 193 nm deep-ultraviolet lithography and complex multi-patterning schemes. TechInsights notes that such aggressive metallization scaling brings serious yield challenges. As a result, production of the Kirin 9030 is likely running at an operating loss, with a substantial share of dies either scrapped or shipped in cut-down versions.

To reach the required feature sizes, SMIC is believed to use techniques such as self-aligned quadruple patterning—well known across the industry but notoriously difficult and expensive to deploy at scale. The engineering achievement is impressive, yet analysts indicate that yield headwinds have not disappeared, and detailed statistics on process stability have not been disclosed.

Against this backdrop, SMIC is trying to curb its reliance on foreign equipment. In the fall, it became known that the company is testing an immersion DUV scanner developed by Shanghai-based Yuliangsheng Technology, part of a broader push to foster domestic toolmaking. Specialists broadly judge a rapid breakthrough unlikely, and say volume production on N+3, including the Kirin 9030, still leans on earlier-generation ASML tools. Even so, getting a 5 nm–class line running without EUV already stands out as a notable accomplishment for China’s microelectronics sector.