"Reliance Scientific Instruments" Completes Hundreds of Millions of Yuan in Series B Financing, Focusing on Domestic Semiconductor Metrology and Inspection Equipment | HardcoreTech Exclusive

Author | Huang Nan

Editor | Yuan Silai

HardcoreTech has learned that Rayleigh Scientific Instruments (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Rayleigh Scientific Instruments") has recently completed a several-hundred-million-yuan Series B financing round. This round is led by Jinshi Investment and China Merchants Zhi Yuan, with follow-on investments from Qingkong Jinxin, Henan Assets, Dingqing Investment, and other investors.

The financing funds will be used for the research and development and market promotion of high-precision optical measurement and inspection series products, enrich the company's product matrix, accelerate production expansion, and strengthen the company's market expansion and brand building.

"Rayleigh Scientific Instruments" was established in 2005 and is a company focused on measurement and inspection equipment for the front-end process of semiconductors. It is a national high-tech enterprise and a national specialized and sophisticated "little giant". It has successively undertaken two national "02 Special Projects" and possesses fully independent R & D technology. The company is headquartered in Pudong New Area, Shanghai, and its team members are mostly from the top two global measurement and inspection equipment enterprises and well-known domestic optical technology companies, with 18 years of product development and market application experience.

Chip measurement and inspection equipment can be subdivided into two major categories: inspection and metrology. Among them, metrology refers to the quantitative description of the structural dimensions and material properties on the wafer circuit, including the measurement of physical parameters such as film thickness, critical dimensions, etch depth, and surface topography. Inspection refers to the detection of whether there are heterogeneous conditions on the wafer surface or in the circuit structure, such as characteristic structural defects such as particle contamination, surface scratches, open circuits, and short circuits that have adverse effects on the chip process performance.

Measurement and inspection equipment runs through the chip manufacturing process and is mostly used for quality control in the process and to ensure the yield of the production line. Among them, with the increase in the complexity of the chip structure, the number of lithography layers increases, and each lithography process cycle brings multiple measurement and inspection needs.

In recent years, with the rapid development and industrial upgrading of the domestic semiconductor industry, the demand for high-end and precise semiconductor equipment is continuously increasing. Measurement and inspection equipment is also considered the fourth-largest market in wafer fab equipment (WFE) after etching, thin film deposition, and lithography, and its scale accounts for approximately 13% of the semiconductor equipment market.

However, for a long time, the global semiconductor measurement and inspection equipment market has been monopolized by foreign leading companies. Previously, China's semiconductor measurement equipment mostly relied on imports from the United States, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, and South Korea, with a domesticization rate of only about 5%, which is the lowest category among semiconductor equipment except for lithography machines. Currently, it is facing multiple challenges such as a scarcity of high-end talents, high technical barriers, difficulties in mass production, and a high degree of dependence on core components from abroad.

Noticing the broad market of the semiconductor industry and domestic substitution, "Rayleigh Scientific Instruments" focuses on optical technology, continuously works in the field of high-precision optical measurement and inspection, proposes a self-developed algorithm model and an independently designed optical architecture, breaks the monopoly of international manufacturers, and has completed the delivery and large-scale mass production of dielectric film thickness measurement products and bright-field defect pattern inspection products at advanced process nodes.

Some product images of "Rayleigh Scientific Instruments"

According to actual tests, the company's products have a high level of maturity, and the mass production performance can match the level of similar foreign equipment. The reliability verification exceeds 10 years, and it has passed the verification of large-scale mass production on various production process lines of different customers.

Currently, the customers of "Rayleigh Scientific Instruments" cover areas such as logic foundry, 3D flash memory, dynamic random access memory, and advanced packaging, and are widely used in 300mm, 200mm, and 150mm fab plants, with shipments of more than several hundred units.

HardcoreTech has learned that "Rayleigh Science" invests as much as 40% of its annual revenue in R & D. After the completion of this financing round, it is expected to attract more high-end talents to join and continue to maintain a high-intensity investment in product research and development. The company has a production base in Pudong, Shanghai, with an annual production capacity of more than 150 units, and after full production, it can support an annual output value of 1.5 billion yuan.

Investor Perspectives:

Jinshi Investment stated that semiconductor equipment is the cornerstone of the semiconductor industry. The vigorous development of China's semiconductor industry depends on the technological and product breakthroughs of semiconductor equipment, and measurement and inspection is a key link. As one of the earliest measurement and inspection equipment companies in China, Rayleigh Science has attracted top talents from both domestic and international sources, adheres to technological innovation, and focuses on optical technology. We believe that Rayleigh Science will continue to maintain its technological and product leadership and help achieve breakthroughs and development in domestic substitution for advanced processes.

China Merchants Zhi Yuan stated that the semiconductor measurement and inspection equipment market faces huge market space and domestic substitution opportunities, but also has high barriers. China Merchants Zhi Yuan is optimistic about the semiconductor measurement and inspection track and expects Rayleigh Science to become the leader in this sub-track with its excellent team, years of technical accumulation, and mass production experience.