Samsung’s fab equipment-making subsidiary Semes has succeeded in developing an argon fluoride immersion (ArF-i) lithography track equipment.
The first unit of the equipment, called Omega Prime, was supplied last year and Semes was making a second unit, the company said on Monday.
South Korean chipmakers have relied completely on foreign fab equipment makers for the machines so far. Samsung spends hundreds of billions of won annually.
Track equipment are used in the lithography process of chip production where the photoresits are deposited on wafers to be drawn as circuit patterns when they are exposed to light.
Semes has so far manufactured krypton fluoride (KrF) lithography track equipment and developed the ArF version to respond to new lithography machines with shorter wavelengths.
Tokyo Electron reportedly holds over 90% of the global market share in ArF-i track equipment.
Semes said it applied automation systems on Omega Prime such as nozzle, bake temperature, and robot location adjustments to eliminate setting deviation in coating and development processes.
