Semiconductor manufacturing dedicated equipment is divided into two core stages: wafer fabrication and packaging/testing. It spans more than ten subcategories and serves as the core hardware foundation of the semiconductor industry.
I. Wafer Fabrication Equipment
A. Core Front-End Wafer Preparation Equipment
Single-crystal and wafer processing equipment: includes Czochralski (CZ) furnaces for mainstream semiconductor-grade silicon ingots and float-zone (FZ) furnaces for power devices, paired with wire saws, double-side lapping machines, and chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) systems to transform silicon ingots into flat, damage-free wafers.
Thin-film deposition equipment: categorized into physical vapor deposition (PVD), chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and atomic layer deposition (ALD). PVD is used for metal interconnect deposition, CVD for dielectric and semiconductor layers, and ALD for ultrathin uniform films below 10 nm, meeting advanced process requirements.
Wafer cleaning equipment: includes wet cleaning benches, megasonic cleaners, and plasma dry cleaners, used to remove particles, organic residues, and metal impurities generated during processing, and must comply with SEMI S2 safety operation standards.
Ion implanters: classified by energy into low, medium, and high energy models, used to implant dopant ions into wafers to adjust semiconductor conductivity. Advanced nodes require high-energy implanters for shallow junction processes.
Thermal processing equipment: includes rapid thermal processing (RTP), tube diffusion furnaces, and vertical oxidation furnaces, used for wafer annealing, oxidation, and diffusion. RTP can reduce thermal budget, suitable for 14 nm and below nodes.
Inline defect inspection equipment: includes optical defect inspection and e-beam inspection tools, used for real-time monitoring of particles, scratches, and film thickness deviations to improve yield.
B. Lithography and Etching Core Equipment
Lithography machines: the core equipment in chip manufacturing, divided into EUV lithography for 3 nm and below, and DUV immersion lithography for 14–90 nm. ASML is the main global supplier, and domestic production has achieved breakthroughs in 28 nm DUV equipment.
Etching equipment: mainly plasma dry etching, including inductively coupled plasma (ICP) and capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) etchers, as well as wet etching baths, used to etch thin films, lines, and trenches on wafers, requiring high selectivity and high uniformity.
For precision components in these wafer fabrication systems-such as CMP polishing heads, deposition chamber shields, ion implantation beamline parts, or lithography mask stages-Hansheng Automation provides custom machining services based on customer drawings, supporting single-piece or small-batch delivery.
II. Packaging and Testing Equipment
A. Packaging Equipment
Wafer thinning equipment: includes laser thinning and mechanical grinding machines, used to reduce wafer thickness for advanced packaging such as fan-out wafer-level packaging (FoWLP) and chiplet integration.
Bonding equipment: includes wire bonders and flip-chip bonders, used to connect the die to the substrate, with ultrasonic and thermocompression bonding as mainstream processes.
Encapsulation molding equipment: includes transfer molding presses and ball placement systems to form the package body and attach solder balls.
B. Testing Equipment
Wafer probe test equipment: includes probe stations and testers to screen defective bare dies before packaging.
Final test equipment: includes automatic test handlers and functional testers for performance and functional testing of packaged chips, followed by binning.
Some of these systems operate under high voltage, vacuum, or high temperature, and must be handled by qualified personnel in compliance with semiconductor industry safety regulations.
