Shin-Etsu
More info
- Released
- 1926
- Type
- Semiconductor materials (wafers, photoresist)
The Japanese chemicals giant that makes the actual slice of silicon everyone else's machines then work on.
Shin-Etsu Chemical, founded in 1926 in Tokyo, is the world's largest maker of silicon wafers — the polished discs that are the raw material for every chip. Through its subsidiary Shin-Etsu Handotai it dominates the market for 300 mm wafers, and it also makes the photoresist and photomask blanks that lithography depends on.
It is an odd position: a chemicals company, equally known for PVC and rare-earth magnets, sitting at the very top of the semiconductor chain. Few steps are this concentrated — only a handful of firms worldwide can make wafers pure enough, and Soitec even builds its specialty substrates on top of silicon from suppliers like this one.