Over the past few quarters, the global semiconductor industry has faced shortages of chip packaging components and advanced chip packaging capacity. Now, despite an overall economic slowdown, it faces a persistent shortage of photomasks -- a critical and complex component key to the chipmaking process. This situation is primarily fueled by the robust demand from a growing number of Chinese chip designers as US sanctions have fueled a chip production boom in China.
Leading photomask producers, including Toppan, Photronics, and Dai Nippon Printing, are operating at full capacity to meet demand from various Chinese companies. However, supply has still fallen short, leading to rushed orders at higher prices and an anticipated increase in photomask prices in the near future, reports The Elec. Additionally, in their financial reports, Toppan and Dai Nippon Printing have acknowledged the challenges.
Photomasks are used to transfer circuit patterns onto silicon wafers during the lithography process, and they are an essential component of the chipmaking process. Photomasks are transparent chunks of quartz that have an imprinted pattern of a chip design and work much like a stencil — shining a light through the mask etches the design onto the wafer, thus creating the billions of 3D transistors and wire structures that comprise a modern chip.
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