Beyond lithography: Chinese chip toolmaker achieves wafer polishing breakthrough

While global attention focuses on the most advanced bottlenecks, domestic equipment makers are quietly closing the gap in other essential technologies

Chinese chip-tool developers continue to make technical progress, with the latest breakthrough in wafer polishing – a critical manufacturing step that flattens and smooths silicon discs – even as the industry remains heavily dependent on foreign suppliers for more complex manufacturing procedures.

Wafers are thin, flat discs of semiconductor material that serve as the base for microchips, integrated circuits and electronic devices. Turning a raw wafer into a finished chip requires multiple steps, including coating the surface with photoresist, etching intricate layers and wiring microscopic transistors.

According to Hwatsing, its new measurement tool can be integrated directly into the polishing workflow – marking the country’s first six-inch metrology system paired with chemical mechanical polishing equipment. The set-up would enable real-time measurements before and after polishing, feeding live data back to the control system, the company said.

This direct integration could improve wafer uniformity and reduce waste, helping to address the inefficiencies of traditional production lines, it added.

Based in the northern city of Tianjin, Hwatsing reported that it had shipped the new system to an unnamed “leading domestic optical silicon materials producer”.