中國人盜竊ASML技術?光刻巨頭強勢迴應!|半導體行業觀察
來源:內容由公眾號半導體行業觀察(ID:icbank)整理自路透社,謝謝。
據路透社報道,荷蘭財經報紙Financieele Dagblad(FD)在週四的一篇報道中指出,中國僱員從荷蘭半導體公司艾司摩爾(ASML)(ASML.AS)竊取公司機密,並給造成了數億美元的損失。
該報稱,根據它自己的調查,研發部的高層中國僱員竊取了技術,並洩露給中國。
“艾司摩爾未發現中國當局參與的確鑿證據,”該報引述艾司摩爾稱。
這篇報導部分依據公司訊息人士,部分依據美國加州一法院2018年11月對艾司摩爾美國子公司和XTAL Inc.之間案件的判決。XTAL Inc.在判決作出一個月後申請破產。
但在不久之後,ASML就此事發出了迴應。
光刻巨頭在其官方宣告中表示,他們不同意“ASML是中國間諜受害者”的這種說法。
ASML總裁兼執行長Peter Wennink說:“關於我們在某種程度上是國家陰謀受害者的說法是錯誤的。事實上我們是是被矽谷的一小部分員工‘盜竊’技術。但所有這一切都發生在幾年前,我們自己發現了這一點,並於2016年在公共法庭尋求法律訴訟。之後在2018年11月我們勝訴之後,有多個媒體也報道了這個新聞”。
按照ASML的官方宣告和相關報道我們可以看到,這些來自不同國籍的僱員(當中涉及中國人)盜竊了MASK優化軟體,並將其轉讓給XTAL公司(公司資金來自中國和韓國),希望基於此打造一個更具競爭力的產品,將其銷售給ASML的南韓客戶。而根據當時的法院判斷,XTAL需要給ASML賠償吧2.23億美金。
ASML也表示,公司很遺憾成為了技術盜竊的受害者。但他們也強調,這種IP盜竊現在一直存在於各個行業,且永遠是一種風險,但ASML在過去多年來已經加強了保護。
公司CEO在宣告中強調:“關於這件事,我們反感對AMSL在中國開展業務有任何影響的說法”,他表示,這僅僅是一單企業間單純的商業間諜案,也有其他國家的人蔘與其中。
ASML也表示,這些洩露的軟體技術僅僅是ASML廣泛的產品和服務組合中的一小部分,與外界猜測的複製一臺光刻機相去甚遠。
附ASML官方宣告原文:
ASML disagrees with any implication that it has been victim of "Chinese espionage", as stated in an article in Dutch financial newspaper Financieele Dagblad earlier on Thursday, 11 April 2019. The article discusses the results of a public court case in the United States that ASML had initiated and won last year, in which a company called XTAL was found by a jury to have misappropriated ASML's confidential and proprietary information and trade secrets in 2015.
"The suggestion that we were somehow victim of a national conspiracy is wrong. The facts of the matter are that we were robbed by a handful of our own employees based in Silicon Valley, who had broken the law toenrich themselves. All of this occurred several years ago. We found this out by ourselves and immediately sought legal action in public court in 2016. This was reported on in several publications after our victory in November 2018," said ASML President and Chief Executive Officer Peter Wennink.
While still employed by ASML, these employees, with various nationalities, stole software for mask optimization, a specific small part of ASML'