Material Insights · Understanding the Material World

Photoresists and Semiconductors

Every lithography step in a fab prints its pattern into a photoresist, and the leading-edge grades, above all EUV resists, come almost entirely from a few Japanese firms; that made photoresist one of the three materials Japan used in its 2019 curbs on South Korea.

Photoresists (chemical) and Semiconductors (industry): 3 relationships.

How they are linked

1. Industry input

Physical flow · Strong · Photoresists → patterning in fabs

Photoresist is the light-sensitive film that turns the image from a lithography tool into a physical pattern on the wafer, so a fab cannot run without it; three enterprise types in semiconductors depend on it, rated up to 5 of 5 on criticality.

  • 3 enterprise types that depend on it
  • 5 of 5 highest criticality, contract foundries

Contract foundries rate it 5 of 5, and memory and integrated device makers and the chemical suppliers for whom it is a core product rate it 4 of 5; every change of material must be requalified by the fab. Lithography-related materials, including photomasks, photoresists and ancillaries, posted strong double-digit growth in 2025, ahead of wafer fab materials as a whole, which rose 5.4% to $45.8 billion.

Enterprise types that depend on it:

  • Contract foundries: patterning (criticality 5 of 5)
  • Electronic chemical and specialty gas suppliers: core product (criticality 4 of 5)
  • Integrated device makers and memory makers: patterning (criticality 4 of 5)

Sources: Material Insights; SEMI

2. Japanese supplier concentration

Shared risk · Strong · Japanese resist makers → fabs worldwide

Each resist must be qualified by the fab for its process, and a few Japanese firms, including JSR, Tokyo Ohka Kogyo and Shin-Etsu Chemical, supply most of the market and most EUV grades, so newcomers find it hard to displace them.

  • about 30% JSR's share of world photoresist supply, 2023
  • about 90% share of the EUV photoresist market held by three Japanese firms, 2025 estimate
  • 92% share of South Korea's photoresist imports that came from Japan, January to May 2019

Japan produced around 90% of the world's photoresists according to a Japanese government report cited in 2019. Korea has localised more general-purpose materials since then, and Dongjin Semichem is developing EUV resists, but EUV processes still rely on Japanese materials. Japan's state-backed JIC agreed in 2023 to buy JSR in a deal valuing it at just under $7 billion including net debt, which keeps a leading resist maker under domestic control.

Sources: Material Insights; Oman Observer (Reuters); Digital Today; The Daily Star (Reuters)

3. 2019 export curbs

Policy · Medium · Japanese export licensing → Korean chipmakers

Because Korean memory makers depended on Japanese resists, Japan's move to licence each shipment of photoresist, hydrogen fluoride and fluorinated polyimide for Korea from July 2019 turned a materials input into a trade lever.

Japan granted its first approval under the new rules on 8 August 2019, for EUV photoresist needed for Samsung's advanced contract chipmaking, so supply resumed, but Korean firms spent the following years localising general-purpose materials. Japan ended the curbs in 2023 and Korea withdrew its WTO complaint. The episode showed that export control of a speciality chemical, not only of tools or chips, can work as a trade lever.

Sources: Digital Today; The Daily Star (Reuters); Malay Mail (Reuters); AJOT (AFP)

For investors

Key learnings

  1. Photoresist sits on every lithography step and each change must be requalified by the fab, so resist makers have long, sticky customer relationships.
  2. Supply is most concentrated at the leading edge: about 90% of EUV resist comes from three Japanese firms, against about 30% for JSR across all grades.
  3. Lithography materials posted double-digit growth in 2025 while all wafer fab materials rose 5.4%, so resist demand is tracking the advanced-node build-out.

What to track

  • Semiconductor materials revenue, lithography segment: Demand for resists and ancillaries as advanced nodes ramp (Yearly · SEMI)
  • Results of JSR, Tokyo Ohka Kogyo and Shin-Etsu electronics materials: Price and volume trends in resists and EUV share (Quarterly · company reports)
  • Japanese and Chinese export control lists for chip materials: Risk that resists are used as a trade lever again (As announced · METI, China Ministry of Commerce)

For policymakers

Key learnings

  1. A new fab such as Tata Electronics' Dholera fab will rely on imported resists, largely from Japanese makers such as Sumitomo Chemical, until local production exists, so supply agreements matter as much as tool purchases.
  2. Korea's experience shows that general-purpose resists can be localised within a few years but leading-edge EUV grades cannot easily be.
  3. Speciality chemicals can be used as export-control levers, so materials should be covered in bilateral supply-chain pacts.

What to track

  • Photoresist supply agreements for Indian fabs: Whether Indian fabs have secured qualified resist supply (As announced · Tata Electronics, MeitY)
  • Imports of photoresists by source: Dependence on Japan as Indian chip output starts (Monthly · DGCI&S, Ministry of Commerce)

India

India's first commercial fab, at Dholera, will need imported resists: in 2026 Tata Electronics signed an MoU under which Sumitomo Chemical would supply photoresists and high-purity chemicals to the fab and explore making them in India.

Sources

  1. Semiconductors: materials, Material Insights (2026)
  2. Global semiconductor materials market revenue reaches record $73.2 billion in 2025, SEMI (2026)
  3. Tokyo's $7 billion buyout dials up global chip wars (Reuters Breakingviews), Oman Observer (Reuters) (2023)
  4. Japan's materials grip strengthens in 2 nanometre era, Digital Today (2026)
  5. The high-tech trade dispute rooted in Japan's wartime history (Reuters explainer), The Daily Star (Reuters) (2019)
  6. Japan warns of stricter checks on exports to S. Korea, grants first nod since July, Malay Mail (Reuters) (2019)
  7. Japan ends curbs on exports of chip materials to South Korea, AJOT (AFP) (2023)
  8. Tata Electronics secures critical material supply for Dholera fab through Sumitomo Chemical pact, Indian Chemical News (2026)