According to Reuters, in order to incentivize local suppliers to manufacture and test complex semiconductor materials such as photolithography machines, the South Korean government announced the expansion of semiconductor material testing facilities last month. The core equipment is an ArF immersion device provided by Samsung at a lower price than the market. Type lithography machine.

The report said that South Korea is striving to become self-sufficient after Japan imposed export restrictions on high-tech chip materials last year. Although industry insiders warned that South Korea still has a long way to go to achieve this goal, the epidemic and the Sino-US technology war may accelerate the transformation of the supply chain, and the need for chip technology to be self-reliant becomes increasingly important.

Lee Joo-won, president of South Korea’s National Nano Laboratory Center, said that large chip manufacturing companies like Samsung used to purchase the best components at the cheapest price, regardless of where the materials came from. However, due to Japan’s export restrictions and the outbreak of the epidemic, they have begun to cultivate local suppliers and establish a stable supply system.

It is reported that the equipment Samsung sold to the laboratory was produced by ASML at a cost of 100 billion won (US$84 million). An official from the laboratory stated that the budget for purchasing and refurbishing the machine was about 20 billion won, but did not give details on the final price.

In addition, Samsung has decided to invest in companies that need to cooperate in the development of next-generation chip technologies. Recently, Samsung invested a total of approximately 113 billion won in two local chip component and test equipment manufacturers S&S Tech Corp and YIK Corp.

The report pointed out that since the tension between Japan and South Korea shows no signs of unfreezing, Seoul is promoting the diversification of the supply sources of materials mainly imported from Japan and has pledged to invest 5 trillion won in this by 2022. South Korea has achieved diversified procurement of the three materials restricted by Japan last year: photoresist, hydrogen fluoride and fluorine-containing polyimide, and they are now available locally as well as from Belgium, Taiwan and China.

However, industry experts still question the South Korean government's move. They said that for the smaller Korean local chip material market, investing a lot of money to develop Japan's competitive cutting-edge technology may not necessarily have economic significance.

Kim Sang-yong, former engineer of SK Hynix, said that it will take time to localize precision materials such as EUV lithography machines. Japan currently accounts for 90% of global photoresist production. Kim, who is currently a professor at the Korea University of Science and Technology, also warned that if Japan expands restrictions on chip manufacturing equipment, South Korea may be hit hard.