SMIC supplier agrees to buy used ASML lithography system amid China’s national chip drive
- Suzhou-based chemical supplier has agreed to pay just over US$11 million to buy the Dutch-made lithography machine from an East Asia company via Singtest
- China relies exclusively on imports for high-end photoresist materials used in semiconductor manufacturing
A Chinese chemical supplier for the microelectronics industry has said it has agreed to buy a used lithography system from an East Asian company as part of a project to speed up development of high-end photoresist materials for advanced semiconductor production amid an ongoing national drive for self-sufficiency in the sector.
Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical, based in an industrial estate on the outskirts of Shanghai, said in an updated stock filing on Friday (October 9) that it has agreed to pay US$11.02 million to buy the Dutch-made machine from an East Asian company, via Singtest Technology a Singapore-based specialist in industrial machinery for the semiconductor sector.
In a separate filing last month, the company said it would raise 550 million yuan (US$80.7 million) in convertible bonds to fund a photoresist material project aimed at reducing China’s reliance on foreign supplies amid a “complicated geopolitical environment”.
The Shenzhen-listed company, which counts Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), ChangXin Memory Technologies and Hua Hong Semiconductor as its local customers, produces ultra-pure materials used in the microelectronics industry, according to its filing.
“The purchase could help in developing high-end photoresist materials,” Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical said in the filing, adding that it was important for China to be self-reliant in the critical semiconductor materials currently monopolised by firms from the US, Japan and Europe.
Photoresist is a light-sensitive material used in conjunction with laser-based lithography systems to etch circuit patterns on silicon wafers.