High Performance Microchip Supply - Under Secretary of Defense ...

RECOMMENDATIONS ____________________________________________________________
sector that will support and sustain DOD access to low-volume, highperformance
ICs.
RECOMMENDATION 6 – STRENGTHEN BILATERAL AND
MULTILATERAL CONTROLS ON CRITICAL SEMICONDUCTOR
MANUFACTURING AND DESIGN EQUIPMENT
The Wassenaar Arrangement covering exports of sensitive,
leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing equipment (SME) is not
an effective tool for assuring that potential adversaries do not have
access to leading-edge IC design and wafer fabrication equipment,
technology, and cell libraries. Steps to strengthen export controls
include the following:
The U.S. government should negotiate bilateral
agreements or understandings with Wassenaar
members in which advanced SME and design tools
are made with the objective of harmonizing export
licensing practices and standards with respect to
China. In most cases such bilateral arrangements
will involve only a handful of Wassenaar’s 33
member countries. For example, only Japan and the
Netherlands are significant suppliers of state-the-art
lithography systems. Bilateral or multilateral
agreements between the United States, Japan,
United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Sweden
alone would encompass all of the countries that
supply state-the-art PECVD systems, ion implanters,
plasma dry-etchers, and lithography systems.
Collective restrictions on exports to China should be
established for key enabling equipment and
technologies -- (1) for the manufacture of leadingedge
dual-use (i.e. commercial and military
application) ICs, and (2) for the R&D and design of
advanced ICs and their technologies. In light of the
difficulty the United States has encountered in
achieving consensus with its allies in the past, it is
recognized that achieving such agreements may
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