JSR completes South Korea EUV photoresist plant in Cheongju

JSR finalized construction of its extreme ultraviolet photoresist plant in Cheongju, South Korea, on Oct. 5, establishing the company's first commercial finishing facility for next-generation metal oxide resist.

The specialized chemical unit operates inside the Ochang Foreign Investment Zone under subsidiary JSR Micro Korea. Regional authorities confirmed the site handover following an on-site completion ceremony held Sept. 30.

JSR commands roughly 30% of the global semiconductor photoresist market, according to trade data published by South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

JSR Chief Executive Officer Tetsuro Hori and JSR Micro Korea President Takahiro Iijima attended the site opening alongside Cheongju Vice Mayor Shin Byeong-dae and North Chungcheong provincial officials, municipal records show.

The facility will manufacture metal oxide resist, an inorganic lithography coating that relies on tin-oxide molecular clusters rather than conventional organic polymers to record circuit patterns onto treated silicon wafers.

Extreme ultraviolet scanners operate at an exposure wavelength of 13.5 nanometers. Metal compounds absorb those energetic photons more effectively than organic resins, reducing optical blurring and preventing delicate circuit lines from collapsing.

Conventional chemically amplified resists struggle to resolve circuit pitches below 20 nanometers without line distortion. Semiconductor engineers use metal oxide materials to bypass the acid diffusion that destabilizes traditional organic coatings.

JSR secured proprietary ownership of the underlying chemical architecture in 2021 by acquiring Oregon-based materials developer Inpria Corp., absorbing all outstanding shares to control its tin-oxide formulation patents.

Inpria synthesizes raw precursor compounds at its development campus in Corvallis, Oregon. The newly completed Cheongju facility receives those chemical intermediates to execute purification, final formulation, packaging and customer-specific quality assurance.

Direct local formulation removes severe shipping bottlenecks for Korean chipmakers. Chemical samples previously traveled from North America and Japan, creating multi-week transit intervals that slowed lithographic recipe optimization.

Samsung Electronics plans to introduce metal oxide resist for sub-2nm foundry logic nodes. Finer transistor dimensions require heightened resistance to plasma etching, a mechanical attribute where metal chemistries outperform polymer resists.

SK hynix is preparing metal oxide formulations for its sixth-generation 10nm-class DRAM lines, known as 1c. Tightly packed capacitor contacts in high-density memory require narrower lithographic tolerances to preserve electrical yields.

Both chipmakers are qualifying extreme ultraviolet layers to support high-bandwidth memory production. Onshore chemical blending ensures consistent lot-to-lot viscosity and prevents premature chemical degradation during domestic fab integration.

South Korea's industry ministry designated the Cheongju plant a critical supply chain project. Government officials pushed to localize advanced patterning inputs following Japanese export curbs on lithography chemicals in 2019.

JSR Micro Korea originally built production lines in Ochang in 2003 to manufacture optical films for liquid crystal displays, before expanding the industrial parcel to house advanced semiconductor chemical lines.

Ministry officials attended the ground-breaking ceremony for the Ochang plant on Nov. 12, 2024, when JSR committed to completing full construction before the end of 2026.

Provincial authorities granted local tax abatements and zoned industrial utility infrastructure to anchor the plant. Cheongju officials sought to expand the district's semiconductor materials hub, which borders major customer fabrication campuses.

Japanese materials peers Tokyo Ohka Kogyo and Shin-Etsu Chemical have also reinforced manufacturing presences in South Korea, demonstrating a broad industry trend toward deploying chemical purification lines near fabrication centers.

JSR is pursuing a parallel regional investment in Taiwan to supply contract foundry giant TSMC. The company formed a joint venture to build a photoresist facility scheduled to open by 2028.

The dual investments in South Korea and Taiwan diversify JSR's operations across East Asia's two dominant manufacturing centers, shielding the chemical group against regional logistics disruptions and trade friction.

Client qualification runs and fab trial schedules continue through late 2026, when device makers complete process evaluations across trial wafers ahead of high-volume wafer production lines.

The municipal notice does not state the total capital expenditure for the Cheongju plant, and JSR has not published the facility's annual production capacity or commercial delivery dates.

JSR Micro Korea engineering teams at the Ochang site now begin operational testing on cleanroom fluid delivery systems and analytical equipment, the municipal government confirmed.