Downstream fab factory accelerates verification of Shanghai Xinyang's first photoresist order

Another domestic company has made new progress in photoresist products. Shanghai Xinyang (300236.SZ) issued a notice on June 30th that the company's self-developed KrF (248nm) thick film photoresist has been verified by customers and obtained the first order. The relevant person in charge of the company said that the development and industrialization of this product is one of the important directions of the company's third core technology-lithography technology. The first order has been obtained, and the product will enter the industrialization stage.

As the global trend of core shortage continues to spread, the potential energy of wafer foundry expansion has been transmitted to the upper reaches of the industrial chain. As the core material of semiconductor lithography, photoresist still faces a big gap.

At present, there is a big gap between domestic photoresist and foreign countries. The self-sufficient rate of g / I photoresist used to produce 6-inch silicon wafers is 20%, the self-sufficient rate of KrF photoresist for 8-inch silicon wafers is less than 5%, and ArF and EUV photoresist with higher production process are not yet mass-produced. The market share of middle and high-end photoresist is almost monopolized by overseas leaders.

Earlier, under the influence of Fukushima Earthquake, Shinyue chemical production capacity of Japan, one of the world's leading photoresist companies, was limited, and the export of KRF photoresist to China was restricted, further aggravating the tight situation of domestic photoresist supply. At present, KrF photoresist only has Beijing Kehua, a subsidiary of Tongcheng New Materials (603650.SH), to achieve mass production, with a production capacity of about 10 tons / year.

Supply restrictions and out of stock have also accelerated the verification of photoresist in local downstream wafer factories. In addition to the announcement of Shanghai Xinyang, Nanda Optoelectronics (300346.SZ) independently developed ArF photoresist recently passed the second customer verification, and received a small batch of orders; Jingrui shares (300655.SZ) KrF photoresist also entered the final period of customer verification. According to industry insiders, under normal circumstances, after the photoresist research and development is put into production, it takes 12 to 18 months for customer verification cycle.

Driven by the good opportunity of localization, the above companies are also in the related R & D and production capacity construction of semiconductor photoresist. Shanghai Xinyang and Jingrui both bought ASML lithography machines in the first half of this year for the research and development of wet ArF photoresist, while Tongcheng Xincai announced in May that its subsidiary Tongcheng Electronics invested 570 million yuan to build an annual production project of 11000 tons of semiconductor and flat panel display photoresist and 20, 000 tons of related reagents in Shanghai.