PHOTORESIST CHEMICALS MARKET ANALYSIS

Market News

Key Developments:

• In October 2019, according to the Japan Times, TOK, Shin-Etsu Chemicals and JSR Corporation held 90% share in the extreme ultraviolet photo resistant market as of 2018, which is further used for manufacturing 7 nanometers chips used in consumer electronics. Above mentioned Japanese companies have developed innovative technologies to develop photo resistors and is currently driving up the demand for photoresist chemicals in Japan.
• In December 2019, FUJIFILM Corporation, a photo resist chemical manufacturer announced the acquisition of Hitachi’s imaging business to expand its diagnostics imaging in the healthcare segment.  
• In July 2019, Japan decided to stop the supply of essential chemicals used in electronics such as photoresist chemicals used for manufacturing electronic chips to South Korea as these chemicals can also be used for defense application and cause national threat to the Japanese government. This will provide an opportunity for the South Korean photoresist chemicals manufacturers to sell the chemicals at a high profit margins in South Korea.
• In March 2015, a research paper written by Nanotechnology Group, ETH Zurich studied the use of extreme ultraviolet lithography for patterning the integrated circuits. The researchers also found that inorganic chemical based photoresists have better performance than organic photoresists. Increasing research activities in the field of photoresist chemicals is expected to drive the demand for inorganic photoresist chemicals.