With the continuous development of society, global science and technology has entered a stage of rapid development, and the global semiconductor industry has also ushered in new development opportunities. Photolithography is one of the most critical steps in the manufacture of semiconductor products, determining the function and performance of semiconductor chips.
With the development of Moore's Law, the global chip manufacturing process is also getting smaller and smaller, for example, 7nm, 5nm, 3nm and so on. Traditional deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography technology has reached its current physical limits and cannot meet the needs of more demanding advanced chip products.
Therefore, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology came into being. It is reported that extreme ultraviolet lithography uses an optical fiber with a wavelength of 13.5 nanometers, which can achieve finer patterning than deep ultraviolet and reduce the number of multiple exposures.
So far, the Dutch ASML has an absolute influence in the lithography machine market, has monopolized nearly 80% of the global lithography machine market, and its market share in the field of extreme ultraviolet lithography machine has reached 100%.
It is worth mentioning that in the last century, Japan's lithography industry also occupied half of the global market. For example, the former Japanese lithography giants Nikon, Canon, and so on. However, due to the misjudgment of the Japanese lithography giant in the later strategic development path, it missed ASML's 193nm immersion lithography machine technology, resulting in its development becoming more and more backward, especially in the advanced EUV extreme ultraviolet lithography technology, which has no experience base.
However, in the whole process of EUV lithography, in addition to the EUV lithography machine, which is extremely important manufacturing equipment, EUV light source, EUV photoresist, EUV mask and other supporting facilities are also important technical components of EUV lithography.
The production principle of photolithography is to cover the surface of the silicon wafer with a layer of photoresist with a high degree of light sensitivity, and then use the optical fiber through the mask to irradiate the surface of the photoresist and the silicon wafer, and the irradiated photoresist will react.
The photoresist is then cleaned with a special solvent to transfer the circuit diagram from the mask to the wafer.
Although it is still very easy to understand in theory, it is not easy to achieve this process, and even ASML today cannot develop EUV lithography products completely independently, and it needs to rely on components from other countries.
However, although there are no very advanced fabs in Japan, the development of EUV lithography machines has been missed. However, the market for EUV lithography technology is now more comprehensive, and it retains control over a very critical part of the supply chain.
It is reported that 19 key materials must be used to manufacture chips, and most of these materials have high technical barriers. However, Japanese companies account for more than half of the global market share in 14 of these key materials, and a small number of Japanese companies are also involved in the supply of other materials.
Therefore, it can also be seen that Japan has a strong strength in the layout of the semiconductor industry, and the layout is also very extensive. According to relevant data, Japanese companies account for 52% of the world's semiconductor materials and 30% of the semiconductor equipment market.
For example, the development of photoresist technology. It is important to know that EUV photoresist is a key raw material for the manufacture of more complex products and sub-7nm process technology, and its development is also a core driving force for the development of Moore's Law.
According to industry insiders, Japanese companies have an absolute competitive advantage in the semiconductor photoresist industry, and there are a large number of enterprises. For example, Japan's Tokyo Oika, Fujifilm, Shin-Etsu Chemical, Sumitomo Chemical, JSP, etc., not only that, the photoresist products produced by Japanese companies occupy nearly 90% of the global market share.
Not only that, but Japan also has a large market size in the EUV mask market. It is reported that in the independent third-party mask market, the mask technology of semiconductor chips is mainly controlled by companies such as DNP, Toppan, Tag Heuer in Japan, Photronics in the United States and LG-IT in South Korea, which means that the global mask market has seen a monopoly and high concentration of giants.
In addition to this, in the field of EUV films. The role of EUV films is to protect the extremely expensive EUV mask from particles falling on the surface of the silicon wafer during the lithography process. Therefore, Japan is also actively deploying EUV films.
Recently, Japan announced that it has reached a strategic partnership with IMEC, Belgium's nanoelectronics innovation center, to jointly develop carbon nanotube-based thin films that can be used in EUV lithography.
Now, Japan's choice to join forces in the field of EUV lithography must be to return to the semiconductor market. Even if it has no achievements in the field of EUV lithography equipment, it has relatively strong strength and advantages in its supporting fields.