JSR's new facility in Chungcheongbuk-do handles only the final production step of EUV metal oxide photoresist, positioning itself near key customers to optimize supply chain logistics.
On September 30, JSR Micro Korea, a subsidiary of Japan's JSR, held a completion ceremony for its semiconductor materials plant in the Ochang Foreign Investment Zone in Chungju, Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea. This is JSR's first global production site for metal oxide photoresist (MOR) used in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. However, the facility does not handle R&D or full-process manufacturing; it performs only the final production steps for MOR.
This arrangement warrants closer examination. Material manufacturers typically concentrate capacity in their home countries to amortize costs and supply via exports. Relocating only the final process step to the customer's vicinity suggests that the value of this stage lies less in process difficulty and more in its position within the supply chain. First, why not use traditional photoresists?
Why Not Traditional Materials
Today's mainstream photoresists are organic-based chemically amplified resists (CAR). Their mechanism relies on acid generated during exposure to trigger a series of chemical reactions, altering the solubility of exposed areas. This mechanism has been used for decades; it is mature, inexpensive, and widely supplied, but it faces challenges as patterns continue to shrink.
MOR takes a different path: it uses a metal oxide matrix, classifying it as an inorganic system. According to JSR, its etch resistance is higher than that of organic materials, reducing pattern collapse during lithography. As line widths shrink, the resist layer is more susceptible to toppling due to surface tension, a defect that becomes increasingly difficult to avoid at advanced nodes. JSR began commercializing MOR after acquiring US-based Inpria in 2021.
Switching to an inorganic system comes with costs. It requires different integration methods on the production line compared to traditional organic resists, forcing customers to re-tune process windows and re-validate. This explains why the adoption pace for such materials is typically slow: it is not that the formulation cannot be developed, but that customer validation requires multiple iterations. JSR positions MOR as a supplement, intended to be used in conjunction with chemically amplified resists as EUV processes continue to shrink.
Why the Final Step Must Be Local
The second question is even more critical: why move only the final process step while leaving the rest of the production line in place.
Photoresist is a typical time-sensitive material. It has a limited shelf life and specific requirements for temperature, light avoidance, and transport conditions. The closer a process step is to the delivery point, the less suitable it is for long-distance transport. Placing the final step near the customer's facility shortens the most vulnerable period between 'finished goods release' and 'line integration.' JSR's own statement reflects this focus: leveraging the new production base to respond faster to the needs of key customers in South Korea while enhancing localized production and quality assurance capabilities.
Another layer is validation cost. When materials undergo client-side import validation, supplier engineers must be on-site to tune parameters, reproduce issues, and adjust batches—tasks that cannot be accomplished via email or quarterly visits. When the material itself is still in the process window tuning phase, physical distance directly translates into extended import cycles. This is why moving only the final process step is cost-effective: the only capacity that needs to be close to the customer is the portion requiring immediate on-site response.
World's first
EUV MOR mass production base
2021
Year of Inpria acquisition
Approx. 30%
JSR's global photoresist market share
These three points respectively indicate the factory's position within JSR's system, the origin of the MOR technology, and JSR's scale in the photoresist category. The third point is key context: a leading supplier holding approximately 30% of the global share placing the first mass production base for its latest class of materials next to the customer cluster is itself a signal.
Another easily overlooked fact is that the absolute volume of material consumption is changing. After memory manufacturers adopted EUV lithography for more layers, the photoresist usage per wafer and the number of batches have risen in tandem, transforming these materials from 'small-batch specialty chemicals' into routine consumables on the production line. If supply is disrupted by long-distance transport or customs clearance issues, it affects the scheduling of an entire production line—this is precisely why local finishing processes are valuable to customers.
Why Wucang
The answer to the third question lies in the timeline. JSR Micro Korea established a plant in Wucang as early as 2003, initially producing display materials. More than two decades later, a new building in the same industrial park has begun producing the most advanced front-end semiconductor materials—the same company, at the same location, shifting its product line from panels to wafers.
This choice avoided two troublesome tasks: re-siting and rebuilding the local team. Wucang itself is a hub for Korean semiconductor materials and equipment, with memory and foundry production lines nearby; for a materials plant, the value here is not just proximity to customers, but also supporting logistics, gas and chemical supply, and the talent pool. When the project broke ground, the Korean industrial authority stated that MOR mass production would help respond faster to domestic corporate needs and enhance the competitiveness of the national semiconductor industry—read in reverse, this also indicates that local capacity for such materials was previously lacking.
This site serves another function for JSR itself. MOR is a new category acquired after the Inpria deal, distinct from existing product lines, requiring a complete redo of process and validation logic. Placing the new category's final process within the customer cluster allows the import of new products and the supply of existing products to share the same local team and inventory system, diluting marginal costs while improving response speed.
Viewing this move in a broader context, the trend is clearer than a single factory: the focus of competition in photoresist is shifting from 'whether the formulation has been developed' to 'whether the material can be tuned to fit the customer's process.' Over the next three years, if major photoresist manufacturers continue to rely primarily on centralized domestic production and export supply, it will indicate that the service radius does not constitute a barrier, invalidating this judgment.
Whether the materials supplier is transferring a single process step or an entire service footprint may sound like a minor distinction, but the difference is significant when it comes to customer qualification timelines. Once the fab's output enters production validation, the answer will be far more specific than any press release.