Korea’s Jusung Engineering set to supply non-memory chip gears overseas

Jusung Engineering Co. logo [Courtesy of Jusung Engineering]

South Korean chip equipment manufacturer Jusung Engineering Co. is set to supply atomic layer deposition (ALD) equipment to a leading global chip manufacturer for system chips at a U.S. integrated device manufacturer and a major foundry in Taiwan, according to its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Hwang Chul-joo.

“The test conducted by our global customer on the Guidance Series, an ALD equipment developed for the first time in the world in 2020, has been completed and we expect the purchase order to come in the first half of this year,” Hwang told Maeil Business Newspaper.

In general, it takes two to three years for a chip equipment to be verified and applied to mass production after development. Jusung Engineering, which has been engaged in the joint development of an ALD equipment with a global non-memory chip manufacturer since 2015, has carried out tests with multiple clients from 2020.

Jusung Engineering until now had been focused on the manufacturing deposition equipment that coats necessary substances to wafers as part of a chip manufacturing process.

The ALD allows the manufacturing of a thin-layered chip film in atomic units for lamination, unlike the existing chemical vapor deposition that builds layers in molecular units. The equipment is considered an essential technology for the production of miniature and high-performance chips along with extreme ultraviolet (EUV) processing equipment led by Dutch and Japanese companies.

Jusung Engineering accounts for more than 10 percent of the global ALD equipment market as of 2021. In Korea, the company is recognized for its technical skills as an exclusive ALD equipment supplier to SK hynix Inc. There have been growth limits, however, as memory chip equipment accounts for more than 90 percent of the entire chip industry.

Jusung Engineering is expected to be able to diversify its business portfolio that centers on memory chip equipment if it begins supplying ALD equipment to a non-memory chip manufacturer.

Jusung Engineering Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Hwang Chul-joo [Photo by MK DB]

Unlike the memory chip sector whose application areas are limited, non-memory chips involve diverse sectors such as logic, image and sensors. The market itself is more than three times that of memory chips and is considered a new growth engine. Processors or logic chips that process calculation unlike memory chips that store information, account for about 70 percent of the global chip market.

The global foundry-use equipment market is dominated by foreign makers such as U.S. Applied Materials Inc., Netherland’s ASML Holding N.V., Japan’s Tokyo Electron Ltd. and U.S. LAM Research Corp. As much as 67 percent of their sales come from foundry.

“North America and Taiwan are both strong players in logic foundry,” said Kim Young-gun, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities Co. “Expanding ALD equipment supply that is used to deposit high dielectric material to logic manufacturers going beyond DRAM will help (Korea) secure a new growth momentum.”

Industry insiders focus on the time space divided technology developed and applied independently by Jusung Engineering. The ALD method of major entities offers the merit of forming a precise thin film but it takes a long time as it involves building atomic layers in order.

Jusung Engineering integrates time sharing technology with the existing space division method, which is gaining attention from global non-memory chip foundry players that aim to improve productivity.

“ALD equipment based on time space divided technology allows unrestricted control of exposure time, which allows expansion in application to various chip processing such as capacitors, transistors, and interconnectors,” said an unnamed official from Jusung Engineering.

Industry insiders project the early batch of supply to be worth tens of billions of won. The supply is expected to expand immensely as Jusung Engineering expands its market share in the global foundry market.

The global chip equipment market is estimated at $40 billion, of which $6.2 billion involves deposition equipment after etching equipment at $7.8 billion and lithography equipment at $7 billion.