Current market leaders are already operating at full capacity
It looks like the semiconductor market may be hit by a new wave of shortages. This time the problem is with photo masks.
Major photomask manufacturers Toppan, Photronics and Dai Nippon Printing are reportedly already working at full capacity to meet demand from various Chinese companies. At the same time, supplies are insufficient, which leads to overestimation and prospects for further price increases.
Photomasks are used to transfer circuit designs onto silicon wafers during the lithography process. That is, this is an extremely important component in the production of any chips. The current increased demand appears to be driven by rising demand for AI chips as well as the rise of semiconductor companies in China.
In addition, the more modern the technological process used in the production of a particular chip, the more photomasks are required. In particular, the production of the Nvidia H100 GPU requires 89 such wafers.