Incorporating the world's No. 1 know-how in photoresist cleaning equipment
Differentiate your competitor's technology... Launch of new market penetration
PSK, the world's No. 1 semiconductor photoresist cleaning (strip) equipment, will release one of the etching equipment next year, called 'Bevel Etcher (Slope Etching Equipment)’. It is the first time to successfully localize the bevel etcher market, which has been monopolized by foreign products. With accumulated technology and know-hows from strip equipment, PSK will apply them to etching equipment.
PSK recently completed the development of bevel etcher equipment technology and entered into supply negotiations with a domestic semiconductor manufacturer. The product may be launched in the first half of next year at the earliest.
Kyung-il Lee, CEO of PSK, said, “Etching equipment will be a new key business next year. We have prepared an opportunity to expand our business to the semiconductor etching field following the photoresist cleaning equipment.”
PSK’s domestic bevel etcher is an equipment that removes the rest of the wafer while leaving the necessary parts with chemicals on the round edge of the wafer. The process of it has been difficult to control chemically and physically, and has resulted in lower chip yield. Semiconductor productivity can be increased depending on etching skill of the wafer edge.
PSK has been conducting research and development (R&D) for many years to develop the bevel etcher. The technology accumulated in the photoresist cleaning equipment was implemented in the bevel etcher to differentiate it from competitors. PSK was selected as the world's 'leader' in the strip equipment field in the analysis data of the 'U.S. semiconductor supply chain report' announced by the SEMI this month. PSK is the only Korean company that was mentioned as a market leader in each equipment field.
PSK will be the first company in Korea to commercialize bevel etchers if it supplies bevel etchers to semiconductor manufacturers. Currently, bevel etcher is virtually exclusively supplied by Lam Research in the U.S.. It is expected to reduce dependence on foreign companies once localizing semiconductor equipment.
PSK plans to diversify its product portfolio and expand its business performance with the bevel etcher. It has succeeded in developing dry cleaning (dry cleaning) equipment in addition to strip equipment, and has supplied it to domestic semiconductor manufacturers. The localization of bevel etcher is a sign that challenges the global semiconductor etching equipment market. PSK plans continue to upgrade new technologies for etching equipment by considering it as a mid- to long-term business.
The strip equipment that focused on the memory will be expanded to the system semiconductor. PSK started supplying strip equipment to the system semiconductor process of U.S. semiconductor companies last year. CEO Lee said, “We plan to expand our semiconductor sector from memory to system semiconductors, and expand our equipment product portfolio from strip to cleaning and to etching equipment. We will accelerate in our growth to become notable in our new niche.”
By Staff Reporter Dong-jun Kwon (djkown@etnews.com)