Osaka Organic Chemical Industry Enters EUV Lithographic Baku Material Market For Advanced Chips

Illustration of Osaka Organic Chemical Industry, which produces high-quality chemicals for chip production (photo: dock. special)

JAKARTA - Osaka Organic Chemical Industry, a Japanese manufacturer that produces high-quality chemicals for chip production, is betting on the extreme ultraviolet lithography raw material (EUV) market, a state-of-the-art chip manufacturing method.

Despite being less well-known in her own country, Osaka Organic has created an important position in the semiconductor industry by providing a photoresist maker, a light-sensitive chemical used to carve patterns on wafers.

Currently, the company has controlled 70% of the market share for argon fluoride (ArF) monomers used in photoresist, and is now aiming to develop in the field of chemicals for an increasingly important EUV resist area as global semiconductor industry value projections will double in the decade through 2030.

"We believe we can compete," said Masayuki Ando, President of Osaka Organic, in an interview with Reuters, referring to the EUV resist market.

In many ways, Osaka Organic is the symbol of Japan's current chip manufacturing industry. As the third largest economic country in the world, Japan was once a global giant in chip manufacturing before its power turned to competitors from the US, Taiwan, and South Korea.

However, Japan is still in control of an important part of the supply chain, such as chip manufacturing tools and ingredients including special chemicals that are valued for their purity.

The Japanese government wants to see the industry have a greater impact by supporting chip manufacturing efforts from Rapidus companies and foreign chip companies such as TSMC that put its production in Japan.

Last month, JSR Corp, a leading photoresist manufacturer, announced plans to become a private company with investment from government-backed funds, prompting speculation about potential consolidation in the sector.

Ando said that the competitiveness of chemical producers in Japan does not depend on the size of the company. "For materials, it's not about chasing a scale to reduce costs, but on technical capabilities," he said. "Companies without technical capabilities "will be eliminated by themselves," he said.

Shares of the company have risen 40% so far this year. "The EUV (Osaka Organic) is on the rise at this time, so it can exceed the growth rate of the EUV photoresist market itself," said Yuta Nishiyama, an analyst at Citigroup, who estimates the market's combined annual growth rate to be 30-40%.