The pilot production facility for thousand-ton-scale photoresist resin materials and new optoelectronic materials at Shangcai Group has been put into operation, adding new strength to the efforts to develop high-end domestic materials!

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On December 25, 2025, the pilot production facility for thousand-ton-scale photoresist resin materials and new optoelectronic materials of Shangsai Group was officially commissioned in the Huanggang Chemical Industry Park. The total investment for this project is 500 million yuan, and it will involve the construction of five platforms: a platform for optimizing organic small-molecule fine chemical manufacturing processes and facilitating scale-up production, a platform for optimizing the purification processes of ultra-high-purity chemicals and enabling scale-up production, a platform for optimizing the polymerization processes of high-performance resins and facilitating scale-up production, a platform for optimizing the formulations of organic optoelectronic functional materials and enabling scale-up production, and a pilot-scale quality control and diagnostic service platform. In-depth news: The current situation and challenges of domestic photoresist resins. Photoresist resins are a core component of photoresists, accounting for over 50% of their cost; in high-end photoresists, this proportion can be as high as 90% or more. Its quality directly determines the performance of the photoresist, affecting the precision and yield of chip manufacturing. Currently, the global market for high-end semiconductor photoresists is dominated by ***** company, with Japanese companies holding around 80% of the global market share. China’s photoresist industry started relatively late; its production capacity is mainly concentrated in the mid- and low-end segments, while the self-sufficiency rate for high-end photoresists remains low. The synthesis technology for high-end photoresist resins is complex, with high barriers to entry. Industry data shows that 1 ton of KrF photoresist monomer can only yield 0.8–0.9 tons of KrF resin, while 1 ton of ArF photoresist monomer can only produce 0.5–0.6 tons of ArF resin. This low synthesis rate significantly increases production costs, becoming one of the key factors restricting the development of domestic high-end photoresists. Facing technical bottlenecks, the domestic industrial chains have explored various models of collaborative innovation as new approaches to achieving coordinated progress within the industry chain. These include collaborative innovation between enterprises and wafer factories, the effects of regional industrial clusters, collaborative innovation between enterprises and equipment suppliers, as well as industry-university-research cooperation between enterprises and research institutions. “The collaboration between enterprises and wafer factories has become an effective way to shorten the verification cycle. Aisen Co., Ltd. and SMIC have established a joint verification mechanism in the field of 28nm copper plating additives, reducing the development cycle from the traditional 2 years to 6 months. Nanda Optoelectronics and Yangtze Memory have established a collaborative optimization mechanism for materials and manufacturing processes, which has enabled the ArF photoresist to pass verification and secure orders in the hundreds of tons range; its cost is 15% lower than that of imported products. The effects of regional industrial clusters are also beginning to show up. The Qianjiang Microelectronics Materials Industrial Park utilizes by-products from Jianghan salt chemical industry as raw materials, thereby reducing the production costs of enterprises within the park by over 20% and shortening the material verification cycle to 45 days. This complete industrial chain model of “raw materials – resins – photoresists – supporting reagents” provides valuable experience for the construction of other industrial parks, including the pilot production base in Huanggang. Technological breakthroughs and progress in domestic substitution: Since 2025, significant advancements have been made in the field of domestic photoresist resins. Bayi Space-Time has built China’s first mass-production line for 100-ton-grade KrF photoresist resins, whose performance reaches international advanced levels. Xingfu Electronics has achieved domestic production of high-end photoinitiators; the performance parameters of these products are identical to those of imported ones, thereby reducing the costs for downstream enterprises by 30%. Dinglong Co., Ltd. has mastered the ability to fully self-supply the entire production chain, from raw materials such as monomers, photoacid generators, and resins to material purification. In terms of process innovation, a team from Peking University used freeze-electron tomography to analyze the microscopic three-dimensional structure of photoresist molecules in the developing solution, resulting in a 99% reduction in defect rates. This technology has been applied to SMIC’s 7nm production line, reducing the defect density to 0.03 defects/cm² and increasing the yield to 99.7%. The integrated innovation of new optoelectronic materials: With the advent of the intelligent era, optoelectronic materials have become strategic areas that countries strive to develop. In 2023, China’s output of optoelectronic devices reached 1.43805 trillion units, marking an era of rapid development for this industry. Intelligent optical/electrical/thermal materials, with their ability to respond dynamically and be precisely controlled, have become the key drivers for overcoming energy efficiency constraints. Such materials are capable of spontaneously sensing their environment, enabling cross-scale responses from the microscopic to the macroscopic level, as well as cross-temporal regulation among light, heat, and electrical conductivity. The organic optoelectronic functional materials that are given priority in the Huanggang pilot production base represent key components of future intelligent optoelectronic systems. Such materials are widely used in fields such as optical communications, lidar, and photodetectors. The development of new materials like GaAs, GaN, and PZT thin films is driving the evolution of devices toward higher frequencies and greater efficiency. Policy support and capital investment work together to drive industrial upgrading. The third phase of the Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund will allocate over 50 billion yuan to support the research and development as well as commercialization of photoresists, with a focus on EUV photoresist materials and high-end resins. This provides a favorable policy environment for companies such as Shangsai. Local policies are also being continuously strengthened. Shanghai provides a subsidy of 10% of the purchase amount for domestic photolithography resins, with each factory receiving 50 million yuan in subsidies per year ； Wuhan, Qianjiang and other areas offer tax reductions and land incentives to promote the “Wuhan R&D – Qianjiang manufacturing” model. The first national standard, “Test Methods for Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Photoresists”, has been initiated, aiming to establish a full-chain standard system to facilitate its industrial implementation. The five major platforms that Shangsai Huanggang Project’s pilot base focuses on building represent solutions to the key pain points in industrial development. As a bridge between laboratory achievements and industrialization, the pilot platform will serve as a crucial attempt to overcome the “valley of death” problem. The commencement of construction at the Huanggang pilot production base marks a shift in China’s high-end photoresist resin materials from individual breakthroughs to systematic innovation. As more companies enter this field, China is expected to achieve full self-sufficiency in lithography resins for mature manufacturing processes by 2030, and establish a partial lead in cutting-edge areas such as advanced packaging.