It is reported that Nikon will expand the lithography machine market in Chinese Mainland and launch new products after more than 20 years

On November 13th, IT Home reported that Nikon will transform its semiconductor lithography business strategy in order to revive its performance, according to Nikkei News.

According to data from Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities, ASML, the largest company in the industry, holds a 62% share of the global lithography machine market, with Canon ranking second with 31% and Nikon ranking third with 7%.

It is reported that after more than 20 years, Nikon will launch new photolithography products in 2024 to explore the market in Chinese Mainland by seeking to counter the trend to achieve a comeback.

Nikon expects its consolidated net profit for the fiscal year 2023 (as of March 2024) to decrease by 22% year-on-year, to 35 billion yen (IT Home note: currently approximately 1.687 billion yuan). The precision machine business and camera imaging business related to semiconductor equipment are two major pillars, but in contrast to the strong sales of high-end micro single cameras, the sales of precision machine business have been sluggish.

The report also stated that Nikon and Canon had dominated the market before the 1990s, but were defeated by ASML in the competition for the development of cutting-edge extreme ultraviolet (EUV) devices. The extreme ultraviolet lithography machine became practical in the second half of 2010, and only ASML can produce it worldwide. On the other hand, Nikon's business resources are scattered across various light sources, lacking strong areas.

In order to open up the situation, Nikon will launch a new lithography machine product using mature technology in the summer of 2024 after a 24 year interval. We used the older generation of light source technology, known as "i-line", which was practical in the early 1990s, with a focus on the characteristics of manufacturing power semiconductors that require durability. Some analysts believe that Nikon will use universal electronic components, which can be about 20-30% cheaper than Canon.