The Latest News In Lithography - Semiecosystem
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The Latest News In Lithography<br>JSR up for sale?; FEL funding; mask trends; mid-year forecasts—chips, memory, EUV
Semiecosystem<br>Jun 07, 2026
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By Mark LaPedus<br>For decades, lithography has been an important part of the semiconductor industry. Lithography is a technology that is used to process and develop today’s chips. It is required to make the world’s most advanced chips.<br>Lithography is a complex business with a multitude of facets. To help the industry, Semiecosystem has compiled the latest and more significant company and technology announcements in lithography and related topics. Here’s the latest:<br>1—Is JSR up for sale?<br>2—More JSR<br>3—FEL Funding<br>4—Mask Trends<br>5—Mid-year forecasts—chips, memory, EUV<br>I have written about each of these topics below.
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Is JSR up for sale?<br>Japan Investment Corp. (JIC), the parent company of Japan’s JSR, is considering selling the supplier of photoresists and other products, according to a report from Reuters. Fujifilm and Mitsubishi Chemical are possible suitors for JSR, according to the report.<br>JIC declined to comment. “As your questions relates to a specific matter concerning JSR, JIC does not comment on individual cases, including the status of any review or related facts,” according to officials from JIC.<br>Based in Tokyo, JSR is a major supplier of electronic materials, including photoresists, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) slurries, deposition products and others. The company also sells materials for displays, life sciences, optical products and plastics.<br>It’s been a topsy turvy period for JSR. In 2023, JIC, a fund backed by the government, acquired JSR for 903.9 billion yen (US$6.3 billion). Following those events, JSR was delisted and taken private.<br>In 2024, JSR posted a loss of 217.7 billion yen on sales of 388.8 billion yen. The deficit was mainly due to losses in its life sciences unit.<br>Then, in 2025, JSR rebounded and reported a net profit of 60.7 billion yen. In 2025, sales were 440.7 billion yen, up 13.3% over 2024. The growth was driven by demand for electronic materials and improved profitability in the life sciences group.<br>Nonetheless, a potential sale of JSR would have major implications in the semiconductor supply chain. In 2021, JSR acquired Inpria, a supplier of metal oxide photoresists for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. Then, in 2024, JSR acquired Yamanaka Hutech, a supplier of high-purity chemicals used in the semiconductor industry.<br>Last year, JSR formed a partnership with Lam Research. The companies will collaborate to integrate JSR/Inpria’s patterning resists and films with Lam’s etch and dry resist deposition technologies.<br>For years, the industry has touted metal oxide resists for EUV lithography. Yet, metal oxide resists have struggled to get a major foothold in the EUV market. For EUV, chipmakers tend to use traditional chemically amplified resists (CAR).<br>There is an opening for metal oxide resists, however. For the emerging high-numerical aperture (high-NA) lithography market, chipmakers (i.e. Intel, Samsung, SK hynix, TSMC) are evaluating several resist types, including CAR and metal oxide.<br>Time will tell if metal oxide resists will ever live up to its promises. Time will also tell if JIC will unload JSR.
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More JSR<br>U.S.-based Entegris and JSR recently entered into a non-exclusive cross-licensing agreement.<br>Under the agreement, Entegris and JSR’s Inpria unit will cross-license metal oxide resist patents, terminate current inter partes review challenges (IPR2025-00267), and explore collaborative opportunities on future photoresist materials.<br>The work is intended to span resist formulation, precursor synthesis and development, and possibly ultra-clean MOR-specific filtration along with associated delivery systems needed to ensure these new materials perform for EUV lithography applications.
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FEL funding<br>xLight, a U.S.-based startup that is developing a next-generation light source technology for EUV lithography, has officially received funding from the U.S. government.<br>This week, the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced the signing of a final award of $150 million in federal incentives to xLight under the CHIPS and Science Act.<br>The deal was expected. These incentives are for the construction and demonstration of a free-electron laser (FEL) prototype, an alternative light source designed to redefine the limits of EUV lithography. This award will support prototype construction at the Albany Nanotech Complex in New York.<br>Still in R&D, xLight’s technology is designed to generate EUV light in an FEL-driven particle accelerator. xLight’s EUV FEL light source produces 4x more power than today’s systems. Basically, an FEL is a high-power light source, which uses electrons to produce light at different wavelengths.
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Mask trends<br>Mike Hadsell,...