Great breakthrough in semiconductor materials! The first domestic ArF photoresist passed the verification.

On Thursday (17th) after the plate, Nanda Optoelectronics announced that the company's holding subsidiary Ningbo Nanda Optoelectronics independently developed ArF photoresist products recently successfully passed customer certification, which marked a key breakthrough in the "ARF photoresist product development and industrialization" project and became the first domestic ArF photoresist to pass product verification.

According to the certification evaluation report, "the control grid in the customer's 50nm flash memory products is selected for verification. Ningbo Nanda Optoelectronics ArF photoresist products test all the performance to meet the process specifications, and the yield results meet the standards."

It is understood that "ARF photoresist product development and industrialization" is a key project of the National "02 Project" undertaken by Ningbo Nanda Optoelectronics, with a total investment of 600 million yuan. after the project fully reaches production, it is expected to achieve annual sales of about 1 billion yuan. the annual profit and tax is expected to be about 200 million yuan.

The data show that photoresist is the core material of semiconductor lithography process, which determines the precision and yield of semiconductor graphics process, and its quality and performance are the key factors affecting the performance, yield and reliability of integrated circuits.

In contrast, as the core material of semiconductor manufacturing, due to the high technical barriers and customer barriers, the global semiconductor photoresist market is highly concentrated, and the market has been monopolized by American and Japanese companies for a long time. Japan's JSR, Tokyo Yinghua, Shinyue Chemical and Fuji Electronics occupy more than 70% of the global market share and are in a market monopoly position.

According to different processes, semiconductor photoresist can be divided into EUV photoresist, ARF photoresist, KRF photoresist and G-line, I-line photoresist, the first three are high-end photoresist products, industry information network data show that by 2019, the domestic g-line / I-line photoresist is only 20% self-sufficient, while the KrF photoresist self-sufficient rate is less than 5%, ARF photoresist is completely dependent on imports.

In terms of research and development progress, EUV photoresist is currently the most high-end photoresist on the market, which has not yet been involved in China, but in the field of ARF photoresist and KRF photoresist, in addition to Nanjing University Optoelectronics, many domestic enterprises have started research and development one after another.

Combined with the research and report of securities firms, the key companies of the domestic semiconductor photoresist industry chain are as follows:

Jingrui shares: subsidiary Suzhou Ruihong undertakes and completes the national 02 special project "I-line photoresist product development and industrialization". The I-line photoresist has been supplied to the domestic well-known large-size semiconductor manufacturers, and the KrF photoresist has completed the pilot test, and the product resolution has reached the technical requirements of 0.25 ~ 0.13 μ m. The company plans to purchase ASML XT 1900Gi ArF immersion lithography machine, which can be used to develop high-end photoresist with the highest resolution of 28nm, according to Jingrui's reply to the concern letter of Shenzhen Stock Exchange on October 12.

Shanghai Xinyang: specializing in KrF and dry ArF photoresist, has entered the production capacity construction stage. According to the fixed increase plan on November 3, 2020, the company plans to raise no more than 1.45 billion yuan, of which 815 million yuan is to be invested in the R & D and industrialization project of high-end photoresist for integrated circuit manufacturing, the main goal is to realize the industrialization of ArF dry process and KrF thick film photoresist for 3D NAND step etching, and strive to realize the industrialization of the above products by 2023 to fill the domestic blank.

Beijing Kehua (unlisted): the product type covers KrF (248nm) and Gram I line (including wide spectrum), KrF (248nm) photoresist has been certified by some customers, including SMIC, and has achieved mass supply. G-line and I-line photoresist have been mass-produced and supplied.

Hu Jian, a researcher at Huatai Securities, pointed out in a report on November 18 that on the one hand, China has issued a number of relevant policies, which have provided good policy support for the development of the photoresist industry. On the other hand, the second phase of the layout plan of the National Integrated Circuit Fund clearly supports the domestic semiconductor material industry chain, including photoresist, and the research and development and mass production of domestic photoresist may be accelerated. Domestic manufacturers plan to expand investment in the field of semiconductor photoresist monopolized by Japan and the United States, and continue to make breakthroughs in R & D and mass production in the field of high-end ARF photoresist.

According to the forecast of Zhiyan Consulting, the market space of semiconductor photoresist in mainland China will be close to 5.5 billion yuan in 2022, double that in 2019. Hu Jian further pointed out that taking the history of the development of photoresist in Japan as a mirror, it is believed that in China, which has the largest electronics industry and semiconductor market in the world, the continuously expanding local semiconductor production capacity, national policy and determination and the support of the integrated circuit fund will provide unprecedented new opportunities for the development of China's domestic photoresist.