Chinese researchers have achieved a significant breakthrough in lithography and photoresist technology that could sharply improve semiconductor production yields, the Science and Technology Daily reported.

The latest progress underscores China’s accelerating drive toward fully independent and controllable chip manufacturing, with advances emerging across both upstream and downstream segments of the supply chain.

A team from Peking University’s College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, working with industry partners, used cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) to visualize for the first time the microscopic three-dimensional structures, interface distributions, and molecular entanglements of photoresists in a liquid environment. The insights have already informed an industrial solution capable of substantially reducing lithography defects, according to the report.

The research findings were published on September 30, 2025, in Nature Communications.