On July 1, BJHZ Precision Technology Group, a leading lithography machine precision parts manufacturer in China, successfully launched an IPO, and the company will become the first A-share lithography machine.
From 863 Project to 02 Project
In this successful IPO, the company plans to raise 1.035 billion yuan to invest in the R&D and manufacturing of key components for semiconductor equipment.
As the first stock of pure lithography machine, although Huazhuo Jingke was established in 2012, its origins can be traced back to 20 years ago.
In 2001, the company's founder Zhu Yu participated in the planning of major equipment for the "Tenth Five-Year Plan" and "863" IC equipment. At that time, the resolution of the world's lithography machine has been promoted to 0.1 micron, and the resolution of China's lithography machine is still 0.8 to 1 micron and lacks industrialization. The main research unit is the institute.
Lithography machine giant Asme (hereinafter referred to as ASML) launched the first dual-workpiece lithography machine, which attracted the attention of Zhu Yu.
Workpiece table, projection objective lens, and light source are also called the three core subsystems of the lithography machine. The double workpiece stage refers to two workpiece stages carrying wafers in a lithography machine. The two workpiece tables are independent of each other and run simultaneously. When the wafers on one workpiece stage are exposed, the other workpiece stage performs measurements such as wafer preparations before exposure. After the exposure is completed, the two workpiece stages exchange positions and functions, so that the high productivity of the lithography machine can be achieved in a cyclical manner. The productivity of the conventional single worktable is 80 pieces per hour, and the double worktable can achieve 270 pieces or even 300 pieces per hour.
Zhu Yu and his team started the research and development of the "863" special subject of "simultaneous lithography machine workpiece stage synchronization test". In 2004, they developed an ultra-precision motion platform with synchronous accuracy of 10 nanometers.
In 2006, the "National Medium- and Long-Term Science and Technology Development Planning Outline (2006-2020)" was released, and integrated circuit equipment was officially included in the country's 16 major scientific and technological special projects. Since it was listed in the second, it was called "02 special project" in the industry. The "02 Special Project" was not implemented until 2009, and the team received scientific research funding again. The focus of the research and development is the dual-workpiece stage based on the magnetic suspension planar motor used by ASML in the latest products.
In 2012, the team began the process of industrialization. Tsinghua University and Zhu Yu, the core team member of the IC Manufacturing Equipment Laboratory of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Tsinghua University, jointly funded the establishment of BJHZ.
In 2016, the two sets of α prototypes developed by BJHZ passed the 02 special acceptance, which is also the first project in the 02 special core mission lithography machine project group to pass the formal acceptance.
In 2021, the company produced DWSi series dual-workpiece tables that can be used in immersion 28nm lithography machines. Zhu Yu has said that the price of this type of dual workpiece table is about 60 million yuan.
At present, the global market share of the three major lithography machine manufacturers Nikon, Canon and ASML exceeds 90%. Among them, Nikon and Canon both independently develop and produce workpiece tables, and ASML's high-end workpiece tables are also independently developed and produced. Huazhuo Jingke basically has no Opportunity to sell to these three.
At the same time, all three also believe that the workpiece table belongs to the core technology and is not sold externally, which makes BJHZ the only supplier of lithography machine worktables made in China.
The annual investment scale of the Chinese semiconductor industry is about 50 billion US dollars, 80% is used to purchase equipment, 30% of the equipment investment is spent on lithography machines, 20% of which are localized, and the workpiece table accounts for 10% to 20% of the cost of the lithography machine In the end, the market space for domestically produced workpiece tables is between US$ 240 million and US$ 480 million.