TBC Home →
← Back to stack

Equipment

SubstituteCore: AI training, AI inferenceHigh: Robotics, EV / auto, Consumer / IoT, Industrial

Deposition / etch / metrology

Domestic equipment suppliers are progressing faster outside lithography, but high-end process coverage and metrology remain uneven.

The simple version

These tools do the repeated physical work of chipmaking: adding material, removing material, cleaning surfaces, and inspecting whether the process worked.

What the technology does

  • Deposition adds thin films. Etch removes material in precise patterns. Metrology and inspection measure defects and dimensions.
  • A chip can require hundreds of process steps, so small tool weaknesses compound quickly.
  • Metrology is especially strategic because fabs cannot improve what they cannot measure.

Market scale

  • Applied Materials, Lam Research, Tokyo Electron, and KLA are the global equipment references outside lithography.
  • These are multi-billion-dollar companies with deep process knowledge and long customer relationships.
  • The market is less monopolized than EUV lithography, which gives China more room to localize pieces of the stack.
Global references
  • Applied MaterialsUnited States · AMAT
  • Lam ResearchUnited States · LRCX
  • Tokyo ElectronJapan · 8035.T
  • KLAUnited States · KLAC
  • ASMLNetherlands · ASML

China angle

NAURA, SiCarrier, AMEC, and Piotech are among the largest China equipment names to watch, with ACM Research and Hwatsing also relevant in cleaning and -related tools. The uneven part is full advanced-node coverage and inspection.

China references

How we got here

As chips became more complex, process tools became just as important as lithography. China has made more visible progress here than in EUV, partly because the market has more entry points.

  1. 1990s-2000s

    Process complexity rises as chips add more layers and tighter tolerances.

  2. 2010s

    NAND, FinFETs, and advanced logic increase demand for deposition, etch, and inspection.

  3. 2020s

    China accelerates domestic equipment qualification under export-control pressure.

  4. Next phase

    Watch advanced-node adoption at SMIC/Hua Hong and KLA-like inspection substitutes.

Why it matters

Even if lithography gets attention, fabs need hundreds of process and inspection steps to manufacture chips at .

Main bottleneck

Advanced-node process coverage, metrology/inspection, reliability, customer qualification, and imported subsystem dependencies.

Where this sector shows up

Core
AI training, AI inference
High
Robotics, EV / auto, Consumer / IoT, Industrial

What to watch

  • SMIC/Hua Hong adoption
  • Advanced-node process tools
  • KLA-like inspection substitutes
  • Export-control scope