At present, the global semiconductor industry is in a downward cycle, but catching up with the trend of domestic substitution, some fields of semiconductors are growing against the trend, with semiconductor equipment becoming the focus of attention from multiple parties in the industry. China is the world's largest semiconductor market, but the independent productivity of semiconductors is low, and it still faces the situation of relying on advanced overseas semiconductor manufacturing equipment. From a domestic perspective, ion implantation machines are one of the links with the lowest production rate of integrated circuit front-end process equipment in China, and therefore are considered the preferred track to break down high-tech barriers and achieve localization.

Urgent need for localization, with broad market prospects for ion implantation machines

Ion implantation is the main doping technology and the most fundamental preparation process in integrated circuit manufacturing. The localization rate of ion implantation machines is about 3%, especially for high-energy machines, which are difficult and have the lowest localization rate. The market is still very broad. "Nie Xiang, Chairman of Qingdao Sifang Sirui Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as" Sirui Intelligent "), delivered" Core "at the Wuxi Semiconductor Equipment Annual Conference held on August 10, 2023 Transforming challenges into new opportunities, Sirui Intelligence sets out again "was stated in the speech.

As a key equipment in the manufacturing of integrated circuit chips, ion implantation machines are crucial, and their development difficulty is second only to lithography machines. It is understood that in the process of chip manufacturing, different types of elements need to be added and the electrical properties of the material need to be changed in a predetermined manner. An ion implanter is a chip manufacturing device that performs this doping process, allowing elements to be accelerated to a predetermined energy in the form of charged ions and injected into specific semiconductor materials.

With the continuous reduction of chip feature size and the increase of integration, various devices are constantly shrinking, and the performance of transistors is increasingly affected by doping profiles. Ion implantation, with its unique advantage of accurately controlling doping, has become an indispensable part of semiconductor precursor preparation.

Compared to thin film deposition, etching and other processes, although the development of ion implantation machines is extremely difficult, the equipment product structure is relatively simple, has strong universality, and is easy to achieve large-scale release. According to the range of ion beam current and energy, ion implantation machines can be divided into three categories: medium low beam ion implantation machines, low energy high beam ion implantation machines, and high energy ion implantation machines. Among them, low energy high beam ion implantation machines currently have a relatively high market share and are used in the manufacturing of process logic, DRAM, 3D memory, and CIS chips; High energy ion implantation machines are more commonly used in the preparation process of power devices, IGBTs, 5G RF, CIS, logic chips, and other devices.

Image source: Global Semiconductor Observation (Speech by Sirui Intelligence at the 2023 Wuxi Semiconductor Equipment Annual Conference)

From the perspective of market structure, the global ion implanter equipment is mainly led by foreign manufacturers such as Applied Materials (AMAT), Acelis, Nissin from Japan, and SEN. Currently, domestic manufacturers that have already laid out this track include Kaishitong under Wanye Enterprise and Zhongkexin under China Electronics Technology Group.

In terms of product layout, the main products of applied materials include high beam ion implantation machines, medium beam ion implantation machines, and ultra-high dose ion implantation; Yasheli's main products are high-energy ion implantation machines; Nissin Japan mainly produces mid beam ion implantation machines; SEN products include high beam ion implantation machines, medium beam ion implantation machines, and high energy ion implantation machines.

Crossing the high wall barrier of ion implantation machines, SIRuiZhi's ability to take on the responsibility of localization

In recent years, with domestic wafer manufacturers such as SMIC increasing their layout of mature process production lines, the demand for ion implantation machines has continued to grow. Meanwhile, with the continuous extension of Moore's law, the line width continues to shrink, and the steps of ion implantation also increase. It is reported that the ion implantation steps on the 28nm process node reach a maximum of 40 times.

At present, the high market concentration of ion implantation machines is mainly due to their technical barriers such as angle control, dose control, and energy control. The entire process route of ion implantation machines is extremely complex, involving over a dozen disciplines of knowledge, and the systems are coupled with each other, making it a recognized difficult field in the industry, "said Nie Xiang, Chairman of Sirui Intelligence, in an interview with the media.

In the context of the entire localization, we have a responsibility to respond to the call of the country, break through domestic technological bottlenecks, and conquer those equipment that are stuck in the neck. "Nie Xiang, Chairman of Sirui Intelligent, told the media that the company's current strategy is to focus on breaking through the most difficult high-energy machine in ion implantation machines.

According to data, Sirui Intelligent was established in 2018, mainly focusing on the research and development, production, and sales of key semiconductor front-end process equipment, providing system equipment products and technical service solutions with independently controllable core key technologies.

Through its wholly-owned acquisition of Beneq, Finland, Sirui Intelligence has fully launched its Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) equipment business, transitioning from the scientific research market to industry and from pan semiconductor to semiconductor, officially entering the semiconductor market; After promoting the transformation and upgrading of ALD business, Sirui Intelligence has established a core technology team that combines overseas technology research and development experts with local technology teams by leveraging overseas technology resources and platforms. It is the first to launch a high-energy ion implantation machine and officially implements the dual track collaborative development layout of ALD and IMP. At present, Sirui intelligent products include ALD and IMP devices, widely used in many high-end and cutting-edge fields such as integrated circuits, third-generation semiconductors, new energy, optics, and component coating.

Specializing in ALD and IMP tracks, Sirui Intelligent is determined to take the path of independent domestic substitution differentiation. In terms of IMP, Sirui Intelligent launched its first high-energy ion implantation machine SRII-8M in June 2023. It adopts mainstream RF acceleration technology and single crystal circular transmission mode, with an energy of up to 8MeV, which can meet the sensitivity testing requirements of CIS and the metal pollution protection requirements of CIS products. At the same time, it is compatible with the development of 4.5M and 3M high-energy ion implantation models. It is reported that the product has passed SEMI S2/S23/S6/F47/Hazop certification.

Currently, with the growth of new energy vehicles and other applications, driving the rapid development of third-generation semiconductors represented by silicon carbide and gallium nitride, Sirui Intelligence predicts that the market size of silicon carbide equipment will reach 6.3 billion US dollars by 2027. In order to highly adapt to market demand, Sirui Intelligent is expanding the SiC series ion implantation machine. Based on the SRII-4.5M/SRII-200 machine, it will combine Al ion source technology and high-temperature injection technology to develop the SiC series ion implantation machine. The product is expected to go offline next year.

The high-energy ion implantation machine is the most technically challenging model among ion implantation machines, and is recognized as the "Mount Everest" in the field of ion implantation machine research and development. It is a key link in China's integrated circuit manufacturing equipment industry chain that urgently needs to be overcome. Si Rui Intelligent believes that, on the whole, silicon carbide will have the same demand for injection machine types as silicon based power devices. In terms of the global market, some leading enterprises in Europe, Japan, North America, Chinese Mainland and other regions have begun to introduce products such as high energy machines or medium energy large beam in their mass production lines. The focus of this release is on the high-energy ion implantation machine, which aims to meet the future mass production needs of silicon carbide.

Sirui Intelligent's ion implanter mainly focuses on the advanced process of Si based integrated circuits to meet the domestic substitution needs of HEI and HCI. Currently, the company has the ability to develop a full range of ion implanter products.

epilogue

Breaking through the bottleneck of integrated circuit localization, gradually solving the problems of broken and short chains in China's IC manufacturing field, and overcoming the dilemma of being constrained by others have always been the common goal of domestic manufacturers. Although the road to localization of semiconductor equipment is long and difficult, it is approaching. If we continue to do so, the future is promising.