recently announced the ranking of international semiconductor equipment companies. In the TOP 15 companies from the United States and Japan occupy 15 seats, reflecting the monopoly of the US and Japanese companies in the field of semiconductor equipment. This puts the key to my country's chip manufacturing industry in the hands of other countries.
However, in recent years, mainland Chinese companies have accumulated a lot and have gradually emerged. The localization rate of glue removal equipment and etching equipment has exceeded 20%. Among them, the breakthrough of etching equipment is particularly critical. The importance of the
etching machine
Lithography, etching and deposition are the three key processes of chip manufacturing. To complete these three processes, three three: lithography machine, etching machine, and thin film deposition equipment are used. Key equipment. The importance of etching machine is no less than that of lithography machine. After the
lithography machine copies the circuit structure onto the silicon wafer, it is the etching machine's turn to show off. The etching machine needs to micro-engrave the circuit structure on the silicon wafer, which requires great precision so that the circuit can be placed in the carved groove and contact point.
It is reported that the 14nm process requires 64 etching steps, and 7nm directly soared to more than 140 . From this, it is not difficult to see that the technical difficulty of producing the etching machine and the complicated process are complicated. The more advanced the etching machine, the more difficult it is to overcome.
Current status of etching machine industry
At present, the global etching machine market is still in an oligopolistic situation. Among them, Z6z, Panlin Semiconductor, Applied Materials and Tokyo Electronics, monopolizes 94% of this field, and only leaves countless other companies. Not many markets.
In order to break this situation, my country has emerged in recent years such excellent etching equipment companies as China Micro Semiconductor and North China. Among them, as the only 14nm and below advanced process verification in China, China Micro Semiconductor, which has passed the etching enterprise, has outstanding performance.
The rise of domestic etching machines
China Micro Semiconductors was established in 2004 and is the leader of my country's high-end semiconductor processing equipment enterprises. Under the leadership of Yin Zhiyao, a global etching machine master, China Micro Semiconductors has made rapid progress.
Yin Zhiyao has worked in Intel, Applied Materials and other international giants, and has rich relevant experience. He returned to China at the same time as his elite team. At that time, Yin Zhiyao successfully manufactured the first plasma etching machine in mainland China with only 50 million US dollars a year in research funds.
In the end, it took to conquer 5nm from 65nm in in 11 years, and it caught up with the international footsteps and won the favor of many customers.
TSMC, SMIC, Hynix, Yangtze River Storage and other giants have become customers of China Micro Semiconductors . Micro plasma etching can be seen in the IC processing and manufacturing production lines and advanced packaging technology production lines of these companies. Silhouette of equipment. Z1z
China Micro Semiconductor's 5nm etching machine will be used in TSMC's 5nm process production line. It can be seen that China Micro's products have been recognized by the public.
It is reported that the global market share of micro-semiconductor etching equipment has reached about 1.4%, and has gradually emerged in the international arena . Moreover, some of the technical level and application fields of China Micro Semiconductor are already internationally advanced and powerful.
The rise of China Micro Semiconductors has created a sense of crisis for overseas etching machine companies. Affected by this, in 2015, the United States will cancel the export control of plasma etching equipment in my country for many years, in order to seize the Chinese etching machine market with China Micro Semiconductor.
The future potential of domestic etching machines
In 2019, the semiconductor equipment market is showing a downward trend, but the etching equipment is still growing. Moreover, as the semiconductor market picks up and my country's chip industry enters a stage of rapid development, my country's etching equipment market has strong development potential. According to SEMI forecasts, my country's semiconductor equipment market will increase to $17.3 billion this year.
All these have brought good development opportunities to China Micro Semiconductor. In the first half of this year, China Micro's net profit increased by 291.98% year-on-year, reaching 119 million yuan. At the same time, China Micro Semiconductor recently plans to increase its capital by no more than 10 billion yuan. These funds will be used for industrialization base projects, Science and technology reserve funds, etc., will help further expand the company's scale and strengthen the company's strength.
China Micro Semiconductors has a promising future.
Text/BU Audit/Ziyang Correction/Zhiqiu
