China's semiconductor industry is facing a very serious situation, in the core equipment lithography by the Dutch Asmax monopoly, in the photoresist and other chip materials are monopolized by a number of Japanese companies.
Photoresist is a fundamental material that must be used in the chip manufacturing process, and its importance is no less than that of the photoresist. However, in the global photoresist field, Japan and the United States and other countries have long controlled the core technology and more than half of the market.
Public data shows that Japan's ISP, Tokyo Chemical Industry, Shin-Etsu Chemical Industry, and Sumitomo Chemical Industry are the four giants that monopolize more than 70% of the global market.
Although in recent years, Chinese companies have realized the import substitution of low-end photoresist, but in the middle and high-end photoresist is still highly dependent on imports, especially high-end photoresist.
However, the monopoly of Japanese companies on photoresist, but accidentally revitalize the domestic high-end photoresist, a few days ago, there have been Chinese companies to take the first high-end product orders.
In June 30th, Shanghai Xinyang, a leading domestic photoresist company, announced that the company's self-developed KrF thick-film photoresist products have been certified by the customer and obtained the first order.
It is important to know that the development and industrialization of KrF thick film photoresist products is the third core technology of Shanghai Xinyang. Now the first order in hand, means that Shanghai Xinyang has entered the KrF thick film photoresist products industrialization stage.
At the same time, this also means that the domestic KrF thick film photoresist will achieve a higher rate of localization.
It is worth mentioning that not only Shanghai Xinyang, Jingrui's KrF thick film photoresist has also completed the pilot, and entered the customer test phase, after the test can enter the mass production link.
This shows that Chinese companies have mastered certain technical strengths in high-end photoresist manufacturing. So, the domestic photoresist in the end can not rise? I think it can.
First, the global semiconductor materials market is gradually shifting to mainland China.
In recent years, the domestic semiconductor materials sales accounted for the proportion of the global market has risen to 16.2%, with the expansion of the market scale, the opportunities for China's photoresist enterprises will be more and more.
At the same time, in China's effective prevention and control of the new crown epidemic, the supply chain stable operation, the construction of domestic supporting industries will further accelerate the progress.
Under the premise of strong market demand, there is much room for domestic substitution.
Secondly, the strong support of the national government is a solid backing for China's photoresist enterprises.
In order to accelerate the realization of domestic substitution and high-end technological breakthroughs, China's relevant departments have formulated a series of policies to provide financial and human resources and other aspects of support for the relevant enterprises.
In the case of favorable policies, China's photoresist enterprises have also actively invested in research and development, in order to realize the domestic photoresist to break the monopoly of overseas and efforts.