As Chinese chipmakers snap up local gear, self-sufficiency drive faces commercial test
Industry leaders caution that the semiconductor equipment sector must now transition from technical viability to commercial reliability
Chinese chipmakers are setting increasingly aggressive targets to source production equipment locally, adding pressure on domestic toolmakers to come up with machines that are reliable in the exacting environment of high-volume wafer production.
Several new wafer fabrication plants, or fabs, in the country were setting explicit localisation targets, according to Jie Chen, chairman of Britech Semiconductor Equipment (Shanghai) Corp, who spoke at an industry conference in eastern China’s Wuxi on Monday.
“One large customer here in Wuxi is aiming for 80 per cent localisation of equipment at its new fab,” Chen said.