Manufacturers are operating at 100% capacity, and the global supply of semiconductor photomasks exceeds demand

News from this website on November 29, according to Korean media The Elec, due to the strong demand for photomasks from Chinese chip manufacturing companies and wafer foundries, the shortage in the photomask market has not eased, Price increases are expected in 2024.

The report pointed out that including Japan’s Toppan, the United States’ Photronics and Dai Nippon Printing ), Currently, most photomask manufacturers are operating at 100% capacity utilization. Even some Chinese chip companies are willing to pay extra to shorten the delivery cycle.

Note from this site: In the field of integrated circuits, the function of the photomask is similar to the "negative" of a traditional camera. With the cooperation of the photolithography machine and photoresist, the designed photomask is The pattern is transferred to the photoresist of the substrate through processes such as exposure and development, and the image is copied to achieve mass production.

In the manufacturing process of semiconductor chips, photomasks play a very important role, especially in advanced processes. More precise circuit patterns require more layers of photomasks to assist production. For example, a mature process may require 30 photomasks, while the latest advanced process may require as many as 70 to 80 photomasks to process

SMIC currently uses DUV to produce 7nm chips, compared to EUV ,DUV requires more photomasks to achieve multiple ,circuit pattern fabrication.

According to Toppan Printing’s latest quarterly financial report (July to September), demand for photomasks is expected to continue to strengthen in 2023. Dainippon Printing also agreed with this in its semi-annual financial report from April to September

Minsheng Securities Fangjing Research Report believes that with the gradual increase in the proportion of my country's semiconductor industry in the world, my country's semiconductor masks The market size is also gradually expanding. The prosperity of the domestic mask industry is expected to continue to be strong, and manufacturers are expected to see rapid growth in performance.

The pattern size, precision and manufacturing technology requirements of semiconductor photomasks are constantly increasing, and the localization rate of high-end photomasks is only 3%. In the preparation of photomasks, my country's semiconductor mask industry is also facing the situation where high-end equipment and materials are monopolized by foreign manufacturers.

In the photomask industry chain, the upstream mainly involves equipment, substrates, light-shielding films and chemical reagents; the midstream mainly includes photomask manufacturing; and the downstream involves fields such as chips, flat panel displays, touch and circuit boards.

There is an urgent need to replace domestically produced masks. There is still a large gap between the revenue scale of photomask manufacturers in mainland my country and leading overseas manufacturers. It is predicted that by 2028, my country's mask market will reach 36 billion yuan. Among A-share companies, Luwei Optoelectronics has achieved mass production of 250nm process node semiconductor masks and mastered 180nm/150nm. Process node semiconductor mask manufacturing core technical capabilities; Qingyi Optoelectronics has achieved customer testing certification and mass production of 180nm process node semiconductor chip masks, and is carrying out process research and development of 130nm-65nm semiconductor chip masks and 28nm semiconductor chip research and development. Required mask process development planning.

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