Domestic thin-film deposition equipment is gradually increasing in volume, and manufacturers such as Tuojing Technology and North Huachuang will usher in a period of rapid growth
According to the data disclosed by SEMI, global semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales will surge in 2021, an increase of 44% compared with 71.2 billion US dollars in 2020, reaching a record high of 102.6 billion US dollars. For the second time, China has become semiconductor equipment. largest market, with sales up 58 percent to $29.6 billion. According to SEMI's "Mid-Year Total Semiconductor Equipment Forecast Report" released at SEMICON West 2022 Hybrid, it is predicted that the total global sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment by OEMs will reach a record $117.5 billion in 2022. Semiconductor equipment, as a powerful tool for wafer manufacturing, is in the "golden age" of rapid development, ushering in a huge market space.
The domestic substitution space is large, and the self-sufficiency rate needs to be improved urgently
In the semiconductor industry, wafer manufacturing mainly includes processes such as thin film deposition, lithography, etching, ion implantation, and cleaning. Among them, thin film deposition, lithography, and etching are known as the "Three Musketeers of Semiconductor Equipment". According to Gartner statistics, in 2021, global thin film deposition, lithography and etching will account for about 19.19%, 18.52% and 21.59% of the value of wafer manufacturing equipment, respectively. Thin film deposition equipment has become one of the core equipment of the semiconductor manufacturing process.
According to different working principles, thin film deposition equipment is divided into physical vapor deposition (PVD), chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and epitaxy, etc., and more advanced atomic layer deposition (ALD) equipment is required below the 45nm process. At present, the global thin film deposition market is occupied by international giants such as Applied Materials (AMAT), Lam Semiconductor (Lam), Tokyo Electron (TEL), and Advanced Semiconductor (ASMI), showing an oligarchic pattern of foreign suppliers.
Gartner data shows that in 2020, the market shares of Applied Materials, Fanlin Semiconductor, and Tokyo Electronics in the global deposition equipment market will reach 43%, 19%, and 11%, respectively. Applied Materials PVD equipment has an exclusive market share of 85%, and it also has a nearly 49% share in plasma CVD; Lam Semiconductor has a comprehensive layout of CVD and post-deposition processing processes, and is the only one in ECD equipment; Tokyo Electron has a tubular CVD equipment. The market share is 46%; Pioneer Semiconductor has a strong technical reserve in ALD suitable for advanced processes, and has a market share of 46% in the corresponding market segment.
According to statistics from the China Electronics Special Equipment Industry Association, the sales of domestic semiconductor equipment in 2020 will be about 21.3 billion yuan, and the self-sufficiency rate will be about 17.5%; if only integrated circuit equipment is considered, the domestic self-sufficiency rate is only about 5%, and only about 5% in the global market. Accounting for 1-2%, the self-sufficiency rate of integrated circuit front-end equipment with the highest technical content is even lower.
Despite this, domestic thin film deposition equipment manufacturers represented by Tuojing Technology, North Huachuang, China Micro Semiconductor, Microconductive Nano and other companies still show strong development resilience and rapid market growth. After years of technology accumulation and scale effect, they have made breakthroughs in different fields and have gradually been recognized by domestic and foreign customers.
The differentiated layout of domestic manufacturers accelerates the introduction of wafer production lines
In the field of thin film deposition, Tuojing Technology's PECVD equipment has obvious advantages and is currently the only integrated circuit PECVD equipment manufacturer in China; North Huachuang is a leading PVD equipment company. Although it also has PECVD products, it is currently mainly used in photovoltaics and LEDs. , power semiconductor and other fields; Zhongwei Semiconductor focuses on MOCVD. The three manufacturers show a trend of differentiated layout, and there is no direct competition between them for the time being.
Tuojing Technology takes PECVD equipment as the core and accelerates the development of ALD and SACVD equipment. Customers cover SMIC, Hua Hong Group, Changxin Storage, Yandong Microelectronics and other domestic mainstream fabs. At the same time, Tuojing Technology has established a business relationship with an international leading fab, and shipped two sets of equipment to the customer's advanced process R&D production line, laying the foundation for opening up the international market.
In terms of PECVD, Tuojing Technology's PECVD equipment products have been adapted to domestic advanced 28/14nm logic chips, 19/17nm DRAM chips and 64/128-layer 3D NAND FLASH wafer manufacturing lines; in terms of ALD, the PEALD equipment it developed can cover Logic chip 55-14nm SADP, STI process and storage fields have achieved industrial application; SACVD can cover 12-inch 40/28nm and 8-inch 90nm and above logic chip manufacturing process requirements.
NAURA 's thin-film deposition equipment includes PVD, CVD and ALD equipment, and its 14nm thin-film deposition equipment has passed multi-channel process verification at the client and achieved mass production applications. In terms of PVD, NAURA has successively developed series of PVD products such as Polaris B and Polaris 200 in the fields of integrated circuits and advanced packaging, and successfully industrialized them.
Zhongwei Semiconductor mainly focuses on MOCVD equipment, which is widely used in lighting and display markets. In June 2021, China Micro Semiconductor released the Prismo UniMax MOCVD equipment for Mini LED mass production, which can process 164 4-inch or 72 6-inch epitaxial wafers at the same time, and has received more than 100 batch orders from many domestic customers. cavity.
In the third-generation semiconductor equipment market for power device applications, China Micro Semiconductor is also involved. At present, it has developed MOCVD equipment for mass production of GaN power devices, which has been delivered to domestic and foreign customers for production verification.
With the respective breakthroughs in technology, domestic equipment manufacturers are accelerating the introduction of wafer production lines. Recently, there have been news that domestic equipment manufacturers have won bids for mainstream wafer production lines such as Shanghai Jita, Hua Hong Wuxi, and Yandong Microelectronics, which also means that the market demand for domestic equipment is increasing.
According to statistics from the bidding platform, in the second quarter of this year, domestic and foreign equipment manufacturers won a total of 28 thin film deposition equipment, of which domestic equipment manufacturers Tuojing Technology and North Huachuang won a total of 13 bids, and foreign equipment manufacturers Fanlin Semiconductor and Application A total of 15 sets of materials have been won, and the number of domestic equipment is close to that of foreign equipment. Domestic semiconductor equipment is gradually gaining market recognition.
