BEIJING, March 27 (Reuters) - China can use domestically

developed tools to make advanced semiconductors, countering U.S.

curbs on Beijing's access to high-end chipmaking technology, an

executive at a major Chinese supplier said on Thursday.

Du Lijun, president of chip equipment maker Shenzhen SiCarrier

Industry Machines, said China faces export controls on access to

lithography systems to make chips, but homemade tools could be

employed instead to help it make 5-nanometer chips.

"There might be a path where we can use non-optical

technologies, that is, using our process equipment to solve some

of the lithography issues," Du said on the sidelines of the

annual Semicon China industry fair that began on Wednesday.

Making its debut at the fair, SiCarrier presented a raft of

etching and deposition process equipment and optical metrology

and inspection tools at a booth that was one of the most crowded

at the event, which drew about 1,400 exhibitors this year.

Du cautioned that multi-patterning could pose challenges to

yields, as such techniques can increase the number of

manufacturing steps by about 20% for the advance to the 5-nm

process from 7-nm.

SiCarrier's tools are already used by major Chinese

foundries such as the leading Semiconductor Manufacturing

International Corporation (SMIC), said a company

manager, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

SMIC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on

Thursday.

SiCarrier also collaborates with telecoms giant Huawei,

Bloomberg News said.

SiCarrier Industry Machines was founded in 2022 and its

parent SiCarrier Technology, founded in 2021, is fully owned by

a state-backed investment fund in the southern tech hub of

Shenzhen, China's corporate record website Qichacha shows.

It was among 140 Chinese tool firms added to a U.S. commerce

trade blacklist last December.

Multi-pattering, which replaces optical lithography with

various etching and deposition steps, is widely seen as a way to

help China produce advanced 5nm chips as it is denied access to

advanced extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography tools made by

ASML.

SiCarrier received a patent for multi-patterning technology

in late 2023 from China's intellectual property regulator.

Its patent uses deep ultraviolet lithography (DUV)

chipmaking machines and the self-aligned quadruple patterning

technology to achieve certain technical thresholds seen on 5 nm

chips, its filing showed.

That helps avoid use of EUV machines and cuts manufacturing

cost, it said.