China is the world's largest semiconductor consumer market. Driven by national industrial policy support and robust downstream demand, the localization process of the domestic semiconductor industry chain has significantly accelerated. According to Frost & Sullivan, the domestic semiconductor market size grew from $192.5 billion in 2021 to $262.5 billion in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.1%.
Under the massive wafer manufacturing system, front-end manufacturing equipment and chamber consumables are ushering in development opportunities driven by the dual engines of process upgrading and domestic substitution. Etch equipment is one of the three core semiconductor process tools, accounting for 22% of the value of front-end equipment, second only to lithography equipment. During etching operations, the reaction chamber withstands plasma bombardment, high temperature and pressure, and highly corrosive gases. Non-metallic components in the chamber suffer severe wear, exhibiting significant characteristics of consumable materials. This article provides an in-depth analysis of the domestic etch chamber consumables market, focusing on market size growth, process drivers, product structure, lifecycle, supply chain models, and the competitive landscape of leading domestic and overseas enterprises.
Incremental Opportunities Brought by Etch Chamber Consumables and High Aspect Ratio Processes
Etch Equipment and the Expansion Cornerstone of China's Semiconductor Market
Driven by AI (Artificial Intelligence) and high-performance computing, the global semiconductor equipment market continues to grow. Global semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales reached $135.1 billion in 2025, and are expected to rise to $145.99 billion in 2026, and reach $338.16 billion by 2034. The Chinese mainland market holds a prominent position, with equipment sales of $49.5 billion in 2024, accounting for 42.3% of the global total.
The etch equipment track is expanding simultaneously. The global market size was $15.67 billion and $16.95 billion in 2025 and 2026, respectively, and is expected to exceed $34.07 billion by 2034, with a CAGR of 9.10%. China dominates the Asia-Pacific etch equipment market. The domestic market size is expected to reach $3.48 billion in 2025. The massive installed base of equipment brings continuous base dividends for chamber consumables.
Dominance of Dry Etching and Stepwise Consumption at Advanced Nodes
In the etching process of wafer manufacturing, dry etching occupies over 90% of the market share due to its high anisotropic fine pattern transfer capability. The mainstream technologies are CCP (Capacitively Coupled Plasma) and ICP (Inductively Coupled Plasma) equipment, which together account for about 95% of the etch equipment market. Process iterations drive exponential growth in the consumption of etch chamber components, mainly stemming from three major transformations.
First, the stacking layers of 3D NAND continue to increase, evolving towards 200 to 300 layers, which significantly increases the difficulty and frequency of high aspect ratio etching. To process vertical through-holes in multi-layer thin films, equipment requires high RF power and long etching times. Non-metallic components in the chamber suffer stronger ion bombardment, accelerating wear and shortening replacement cycles.
Second, advanced logic chips adopt self-aligned multiple patterning processes. After the line width drops below 20nm, the number of etching steps expands significantly: about 50 etching steps for 20nm, surging to over 100 steps for 7/10nm processes. The doubling of etching steps means the equipment chamber operates continuously, and the frequency of component wear and replacement increases linearly.
Third, Atomic Layer Etching (ALE) is gradually being popularized, achieving atomic-level precision and high selectivity, with its market size continuously expanding. This technology has stringent requirements for the uniformity of gas flow and electric field within the chamber. Even minor deformations in consumables such as silicon electrodes and electrostatic chucks (ESC) will lead to failure, further accelerating the replacement of consumables.
Dual Drivers: Procurement of Non-Metallic Etch Consumables Ushers in an Explosion
Continuous upgrades in plasma control, chamber self-cleaning technology, and in-line defect monitoring technology have driven large-scale investments in etch equipment and components. In 2024, direct and strategic investments in the global semiconductor etch equipment market exceeded $12.3 billion, with procurement budgets accounting for as much as 22% of total capital expenditures. Meanwhile, subsidies for supply chain localization are also increasing globally. For example, the U.S. allocated $680 million for domestic mold and component production, and Japan allocated $430 million to support Tokyo Electron Limited (TEL) and Hitachi High-Tech in expanding capacity.
Against the backdrop of steadily increasing installed equipment, the daily consumable procurement needs of Chinese domestic wafer fabs have shown explosive growth. According to Frost & Sullivan statistics, the procurement volume of semiconductor equipment components by domestic wafer fabs reached 17.72 billion RMB in 2024. Within this massive capital expenditure, non-metallic components (primarily silicon, quartz, and advanced ceramics), which are directly exposed to plasma and corrosive gases, exhibit stronger consumable attributes.
Fierce Competition and In-Depth Evolution of Domestic Substitution
With the rapid capacity expansion of domestic equipment OEMs and wafer fabs, a group of highly competitive local representative enterprises has emerged in the upstream consumables industry chain, accelerating the breaking of the foreign monopoly pattern.
Genori Technology: Comprehensive Leader in Direct Procurement of Non-Metallic Chamber Consumables
Genori Technology primarily focuses on the chip manufacturing process, located in the midstream of the semiconductor industry chain, supplying etch and thin-film deposition equipment components to wafer fabs and providing surface treatment services. Its competitive strength in the field of non-metallic consumables has been widely recognized by wafer fabs. According to Frost & Sullivan data, among local enterprises directly supplying semiconductor equipment components to wafer fabs in 2024, Genori Technology ranked first in the silicon components market, with a sales revenue market share of 4.5%; it also ranked first in the quartz components market, with a revenue market share of 8.8%.
Financial and customer data disclosed in its prospectus show that Genori Technology demonstrates strong industrial focus. In 2025, the company's semiconductor business revenue was 656 million RMB, accounting for 77.54% of total operating revenue; display panel business revenue was 189 million RMB, accounting for 22.37%. However, although Genori Technology has established its position as a local leader, it still faces the game characteristics of high dependence on major customers. During the reporting period, the proportion of sales revenue from the top five customers was 80.23%, 74.59%, 72.80%, and 71.06%, respectively. Although this proportion has shown a downward trend year by year, customer concentration remains at a relatively high level. This indicates that, against the backdrop of semiconductor manufacturing highly concentrating in a few leading wafer fabs, the performance growth of local consumable manufacturers is strongly bound to the capacity expansion, capacity utilization rate, and direct procurement switching progress of mainstream domestic wafer fabs.
KEMA Materials: Breakthrough Player in Advanced Ceramic Components
Advanced structural ceramics serve as the core barrier for high-frequency and high-voltage electric field isolation and corrosion resistance within the etch chamber. The global advanced structural ceramic market size reaches 106.7 billion RMB, and the pan-semiconductor advanced ceramic market size reaches 37.3 billion RMB, of which the Chinese market is expected to reach 12.5 billion RMB by 2026. In this golden track, KEMA Materials has achieved comprehensive breakthroughs from material formulation to precision processing.
According to Frost & Sullivan data, in 2021, KEMA Materials accounted for about 72% of the total supply scale of local advanced structural ceramic suppliers for domestic semiconductor equipment in Chinese mainland, and about 14% of the total procurement scale of advanced structural ceramics for domestic semiconductor equipment in Chinese mainland (including imported brands). KEMA Materials was officially listed on the ChiNext board in August 2024. Relying on its leading position in the field of semiconductor structural ceramics, its latest market capitalization has exceeded 16.3 billion RMB. Its high-purity alumina, yttrium-based ceramics, and other products are accelerating the substitution of overseas giants such as Kyocera and NGK in Japan, and have achieved substantive breakthroughs in the R&D and industrialization of key active ceramic components—electrostatic chucks (ESC).
Shengong Semiconductor: Highly Focused on Etch Silicon Consumables
At the very upstream of the industry chain, the quality of raw materials for silicon electrodes and silicon rings used in etching plays a decisive role in the anti-ablation capability of subsequent components. Shengong Semiconductor' business is highly focused on etch silicon consumables, with etch silicon-related revenue accounting for about 95%.
The core product of Shengong Semiconductor is ultra-large diameter monocrystalline silicon substrates for preparing etch silicon electrodes, silicon rings, and other components. Such monocrystalline silicon requires extremely low lattice defects, specific resistivity distribution, and extremely high physical purity. Relying on its magnetic-field-free large-diameter monocrystalline silicon manufacturing technology, Shengong Semiconductor has broken the monopoly of foreign capital in this field. Finished silicon components are directly supplied to domestic wafer fabs and equipment processing plants; large-diameter silicon materials are sold to well-known overseas silicon component manufacturers, and have successfully entered the global supply chain of mainstream overseas etch equipment OEMs.
Conclusion
Domestic etch chamber consumables are transitioning from partial component substitution to a transformation stage of full-category, integrated closed-loop services. Three major trends will reshape the industry's competitive landscape.
First, structural material upgrading. As the process evolves towards 5nm and 3nm, the issues of fast ablation and particle contamination in traditional monocrystalline silicon and quartz components become prominent. The plasma erosion resistance of single-crystal SiC can reach 2.5 times that of monocrystalline silicon. Although the cost is higher, it can extend the replacement cycle and improve equipment capacity utilization rate, with its penetration rate in high-power chambers rapidly increasing. Yttrium-based materials such as yttrium oxide and yttrium aluminum garnet, whether as integral ceramic components or dense coatings, are gradually becoming the mainstream configuration for advanced chambers.
Second, business model iteration, evolving towards TCM (Total Chamber Management) full-lifecycle management. To control operating costs, wafer fabs tend to entrust service providers with the packaging of new component supply, cleaning, spraying regeneration, and scrap recycling. This model achieves zero inventory of spare parts and strengthens customer stickiness. Enterprises such as Genori Technology build service barriers relying on supporting production lines around wafer fabs.
Third, domestic substitution enters the deep-water zone, urgently needing to break through the PCN (Process Change Notification) verification threshold for second-party components. The demand for supply chain security opens the window for domestic on-machine verification, but the verification cost and risk for high-value consumables such as electrostatic chucks are high. Local manufacturers need to collaborate with equipment manufacturers such as AMEC (Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment) and NAURA (Naura Technology Group) to carry out OEM collaborative design during the equipment R&D stage, shortening the verification cycle for wafer fabs.
Etch chamber consumables belong to the category of high-consumption and inflation-resistant products. The release of domestic capacity, coupled with the increase in per-wafer consumable usage driven by advanced processes, means that local enterprises with breakthrough capabilities in high-purity powders, large-diameter monocrystals, and high-end ceramic components will continue to reap industry dividends and rewrite the global supply pattern.
References:
1. Semiconductor Equipment and Components Industry Overview - Frost & Sullivan China, https://www.frostchina.com/content/insight/detail/6a0a7c3aa8a1140079ddeb09
2. 2035 Semiconductor Etch Equipment Market Size, Trends and Outlook Report - Market Growth Reports, https://www.marketgrowthreports.com/zh/market-reports/semiconductor-etch-equipment-market-105816
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