Domestic Semiconductor Equipment's Significant Foray into HBM

Domestic equipment manufacturers are gearing up for HBM: This time, it's truly a high-end game.

Driven by the explosive growth of computing power demand in artificial intelligence, high-bandwidth memory (HBM) has become the "performance cornerstone" of high-computing-power chips and entered a golden development period. Relying on key technologies such as TSV (Through-Silicon Via), 3D stacking, and advanced packaging, HBM achieves an optimal balance of capacity, bandwidth, and power consumption without occupying additional space, becoming the core breakthrough point in the storage field in the AI era.

The highly complex manufacturing process of HBM places stringent requirements on semiconductor equipment but also opens a strategic entry window for domestic equipment manufacturers. Nowadays, domestic semiconductor equipment manufacturers are making a large-scale foray into the HBM field and achieving breakthroughs from 0 to 1 in key technologies.

Technological Iteration Spurs Demand, and HBM Equipment Becomes the Core Support

The technological advantages of HBM stem from its unique structural design and manufacturing process. It vertically interconnects multiple DRAM Dies and Logic Dies through TSV (Through-Silicon Via) and Bump, then integrates them with the GPU on the ABF carrier board via an interposer, and finally forms an integrated product through system-in-package (SiP). This design not only shortens the signal transmission path and reduces power consumption but also achieves an ultra-high bus width of 1024 bits (maintained from HBM1 to HBM3E), perfectly matching the high-bandwidth requirements of AI chips.

Compared with traditional DRAM, the manufacturing process of HBM covers key links such as TSV, bump manufacturing, stacking and bonding, and packaging and testing. Among them, the TSV process accounts for 30% of the total cost of HBM and is the core process determining product performance. The implementation of the TSV process requires a series of high-end equipment support: Deep hole etching equipment uses the Bosch process dry etching technology to lay the foundation for through-hole manufacturing; Vapor deposition equipment is responsible for the precise deposition of the insulating layer, barrier layer, and seed layer; Copper filling equipment needs to solve the problem of metallization of micro-holes with a high aspect ratio and is the most difficult part of the entire process; CMP equipment needs to thin the wafer to less than 50μm to ensure the exposure of the copper layer for interconnection. In addition, the interposer manufacturing equipment, stacking and bonding equipment required for 2.5D packaging, and the testing equipment after packaging together constitute the equipment system for HBM production, and its technical threshold far exceeds that of traditional DRAM manufacturing equipment.

Due to the significant differences in the entire process of HBM design, manufacturing, and packaging and testing, the demand for dedicated equipment is further amplified. With the technological iteration of the HBM4 generation, the requirements for process accuracy, compatibility, and stability of the equipment continue to increase, providing broad market space for equipment manufacturers with core technological strength.

AI Drives HBM Capacity Expansion, and Related Equipment Usher in Opportunities

Since the fourth quarter of 2025, the global spot market for storage has continued to rise strongly. New demand has pushed the prices of finished products to new highs, providing strong impetus for storage manufacturers to expand production. Under the full sweep of the AI wave, the shortage of storage chips has become increasingly severe. International storage giants such as Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron have all tilted their capital expenditures towards high-end storage products such as HBM. The supply-demand gap in traditional storage is expected to continue until 2026. Against this background, the urgency for domestic storage manufacturers to expand production has significantly increased. As the pre - expansion link, semiconductor equipment has first become the core focus of the market.

The industry consensus has clearly indicated that the storage shortage brought about by AI is persistent. A research report from China Merchants Securities pointed out that the current upward cycle of the storage industry is completely different from the short - term rise caused by the original manufacturers' production cuts and price increases in 2024. The core driving force is the explosive growth of storage demand in the AI era, characterized by a longer duration of price increases and an accelerating upward trend. The supply - side capacity release is limited, and it is expected that the supply - demand gap for high - end storage chips will further widen in the first half of 2026 or even throughout the year, and the price increase trend is expected to continue.

Benefiting from the strong empowerment of the AI industry, the global HBM market scale has continued to soar. Data shows that in 2024, the market scale of semiconductor memory reached $170 billion, a 78% increase from the previous year. By product type, DRAM (including HBM) accounted for the largest share, reaching 57%. HBM itself accounted for 10%. By product type, the market scale of DRAM will grow from $97 billion in 2024 to $194 billion in 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of about 12%. HBM will drive the growth of the DRAM market, and its market scale will significantly increase from $17.4 billion in 2024 to $98 billion in 2030. The compound annual growth rate of the HBM market will be as high as about 33%, leading the entire memory market.

Although the current global market is dominated by the three giants of Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, domestic storage enterprises are accelerating their catch - up, and market competition is becoming increasingly fierce. With the advancement of the technological iteration of the HBM4 generation, the market demand for core equipment such as etching, deposition, and testing has skyrocketed, opening up unprecedented development space for semiconductor equipment manufacturers.

Lv Guangquan, the chairman of Tuojing Technology, believes that the rise in storage prices reflects that there is still a large demand gap in the market. In the medium - to - long term, it is expected to drive storage chip manufacturers to continuously expand their production capacity. The rapid growth of data volume is driving the evolution of high - bandwidth memory (HBM) towards three - dimensional integration and other directions. The stacking layers of 3D NAND Flash chips are constantly increasing. The technological development trend will simultaneously raise the technological requirements and procurement needs of downstream customers for advanced hard masks, key dielectric films, and related thin - film deposition and bonding equipment.

It is worth noting that the localization rate of the current Chinese HBM industrial chain at the key equipment end is less than 5%, which has become the biggest short - board restricting the breakthrough of domestic storage chips and also provides a clear breakthrough direction for domestic equipment manufacturers.

Domestic Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturers Make a Large - Scale Foray into HBM

The explosive growth of the HBM market demand has directly driven the rise of the upstream equipment industrial chain. Recently, many domestic semiconductor equipment enterprises have intensively disclosed their progress related to HBM and achieved comprehensive breakthroughs in core links such as etching, deposition, bonding, and testing.

Core Equipment at the Manufacturing End

ACM Research clearly stated on the interactive platform that the company has launched multiple pieces of equipment suitable for the HBM process. Among them, the company's Ultra ECP 3d equipment can be used for TSV copper filling; the full - line wet cleaning equipment and copper electroplating equipment can all be used in the HBM process, and the full - line packaging and testing equipment (including wet equipment, photoresist coating, developing equipment, and copper electroplating equipment) can also be applied to the 2.5D packaging process of high - computing - power chips.

Northern Microelectronics said that with the rapid growth of the HBM market demand, it will drive an increase in the demand for related process equipment. The company can provide multiple core equipment such as deep silicon etching, thin - film deposition, heat treatment, wet cleaning, and electroplating in the field of HBM chip manufacturing.

AMEC said that currently, the company has comprehensively deployed in the field of advanced packaging (including the high - bandwidth memory HBM process), including etching, CVD, PVD, wafer metrology and inspection equipment, etc., and has released CCP etching and TSV deep silicon via equipment.

Maxeon said that currently, the company's high - selectivity etching equipment and hybrid bonding equipment can be used in the DRAM (high - bandwidth memory HBM) process. The company's etching and thin - film deposition equipment have been widely used in the fields of storage chip and logic chip manufacturing.

Bonding and Packaging Equipment

Tuojing Technology: As the only domestic manufacturer to achieve mass production of hybrid bonding equipment (W2W), its wafer - to - wafer bonding product (dione 300) and chip - to - wafer bonding surface pretreatment product (propus) have reached the international leading level and have passed the verification of leading wafer fabs. The new - generation high - speed and high - precision wafer - to - wafer hybrid bonding product has been shipped to the client for verification, the verification of the chip - to - wafer hybrid bonding equipment is progressing smoothly, and the wafer laser peeling product after permanent bonding has been developed.

Huazhuo Jingke: It has independently developed and launched a full range of high - end HBM equipment, including hybrid bonding equipment (UP - UMAHB300), fusion bonding equipment (UP - UMAFB300), chiplet bonding equipment (UP - D2W - HB), laser peeling equipment (UP - LLR - 300), and laser annealing equipment (UP - DLA - 300). The company's CMP equipment, thinning equipment, dicing equipment, edge polishing equipment, and other products are all key core equipment for chip stacking and advanced packaging processes such as HBM and CoWos and have been widely used by many leading customers.

Metrology, Inspection, and Supporting Equipment

Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Co., Ltd.: The first wafer flatness measurement equipment GINKGOIFM - P300 was successfully shipped to an HBM client, marking a major breakthrough in this field in China. It not only breaks the long - term monopoly of foreign manufacturers but also breaks through the measurement limitations of domestic equipment for ultra - warped wafers and low - reflectivity wafers and supports the full - parameter inspection of bonded wafers and SiC/GaAs compound semiconductor substrates.

Sai Teng Co., Ltd.: The HBM inspection equipment business continues to expand. Samsung, as an important customer of the company, has received and successively accepted a large number of HBM equipment orders in the early stage. The independently developed wafer edge all - around monitoring equipment RXW - 1200 has been successfully delivered to a leading domestic semiconductor FAB customer, and the layout of the domestic and international markets is advancing simultaneously.

Wuhan Jingce Electronics Co., Ltd.: Its holding subsidiary and other subsidiaries within the scope of consolidation signed semiconductor metrology and inspection equipment sales contracts with a cumulative amount of 433 million yuan with the same customer within twelve months. The contract products are mainly used in cutting - edge fields such as advanced storage and HBM (high - bandwidth memory), marking a further improvement in the company's competitiveness in the market for high - end semiconductor inspection equipment.

From core manufacturing to packaging and testing, domestic semiconductor equipment enterprises have built the equipment supply capacity covering the entire HBM industrial chain. With the continuous breakthroughs of domestic equipment in terms of technological maturity and customer verification, it will further reduce the equipment procurement costs of domestic HBM chip manufacturers, accelerate the industrialization process of domestic HBM chips, and provide key support for the self - controllability of China's AI computing power industrial chain.

Currently, domestic semiconductor equipment manufacturers have achieved a key breakthrough from 0 to 1 in the HBM field. However, at the same time, we should also clearly recognize that compared with the international leading level, there are still gaps in domestic equipment in terms of process accuracy, technological generation difference, and supply - chain resilience.

Against the background of the continuous explosion of AI demand, HBM equipment has become a new growth pole for the domestic semiconductor equipment industry. This battle for the localization of HBM equipment is not only related to the development of individual enterprises but also related to the upgrading and breakthrough of China's semiconductor industry. In the future, with the coordinated efforts of policies, industries, and technologies, domestic equipment manufacturers will surely continue to break through technological bottlenecks, narrow the international gap, occupy an important position in the global HBM market competition, and inject strong impetus into the high - quality development of China's semiconductor industry.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Semiconductor Industry Insights" (ID: ICViews), author: Peng Cheng, published by 36Kr with authorization.