A newly released filing from China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) shows Huawei submitted a patent in June 2022 outlining a method to achieve 2nm-class metal line patterning using only deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography — potentially bypassing US export restrictions on advanced tools. The South China Morning Post reports the technique can create metal pitches under 21nm, a requirement typically met only with ASML’s top-tier extreme ultraviolet (EUV) exposure systems, which remain off-limits to Huawei.