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SICC is a pure-play maker of single-crystal silicon carbide (SiC) substrates and one of the few companies worldwide that grows, slices and polishes SiC wafers at industrial scale. It covers every diameter from 2-inch to 12-inch. Fuji Keizai's March 2026 survey put SICC first in the global conductive-type SiC substrate market for 2025, with 27.6%, ahead of Wolfspeed, and first in 8-inch conductive substrates, with 51.3%. Its wafers go into SiC power devices made by more than half of the world's ten largest power-semiconductor manufacturers, including Infineon and Bosch. They end up in 800V electric-vehicle drivetrains, AI data-centre power supplies, solar inverters, energy storage, fast chargers, rail traction and RF communications. SICC led the industry to 12-inch substrates: it launched the first 12-inch product in November 2024, completed the full 12-inch range (conductive N-type, conductive P-type and high-purity semi-insulating) in 2025, and has taken 12-inch orders from leading customers. It manufactures in Jinan and Shanghai Lingang, is building a site in Malaysia, and since August 2025 has been listed in both Shanghai and Hong Kong. --- **What the company does.** SICC researches, develops, manufactures and sells SiC substrates, the monocrystalline wafers on which SiC epitaxial layers are grown before devices are fabricated. Production runs from high-purity SiC powder synthesis, through physical vapour transport (PVT) crystal growth at about 2,300°C, to ingot processing and wafer slicing, then lapping, chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP), cleaning and inspection. The company also uses a liquid-phase growth method for large-diameter crystals and designs its own crystal-growth furnaces. **The company's own description.** In its FY2025 annual report and Hong Kong filings, SICC calls itself a leading company in the global wide-bandgap semiconductor materials industry that has concentrated on research and industrialisation of high-quality SiC substrates since it was founded. Its products are used in power semiconductor devices, RF semiconductor devices and newer optical, filter and thermal applications. **Business model.** **Revenue model:** Description: Product sales, essentially all of revenue. SiC substrates (including off-specification crystal and gem-grade material sold as "other business") generated RMB 1,459 million in FY2025. Leasing and services generated RMB 6.0 million. There is no subscription or licensing revenue. **Contracting:** Description: Long-term supply agreements and framework contracts with international device makers (Infineon in 2023; Bosch in 2023; a three-year framework with "Customer F" worth RMB 804.8 million including tax, signed August 2023), plus spot and quarterly orders in China **Pricing:** Description: Price per wafer, varying by diameter, conductivity type, grade (automotive vs. non-automotive) and defect density. In 2025 the company deliberately cut prices to gain share. Selective price increases on new and rush orders followed in 2026. **Value-chain position:** Description: Upstream materials: substrate (SICC) → epitaxy (in-house at device makers or specialists such as TYSiC and EpiWorld) → device fabrication (Infineon, onsemi, STMicroelectronics, ROHM, Bosch, CRRC, United Nova Technology and others) → modules → end systems **Customer types:** Description: Integrated device manufacturers (IDMs), SiC foundries, epitaxy houses, RF device makers, optical component makers **End markets:** Description: EVs (traction inverters, on-board chargers, DC-DC converters); AI data-centre high-voltage DC power and solid-state transformers; solar inverters and energy storage; high-power charging; rail traction and the power grid; 5G base-station RF (semi-insulating); AR/AI-glasses optical waveguides; TF-SAW filters; heat-dissipation parts and advanced-packaging interposers **Independent characterisation.** SICC is a capital-intensive, single-product materials manufacturer. Its earnings depend on three things: wafer prices, the mix of diameters (8-inch wafers carry higher prices and margins than 6-inch) and how fully its plants are used, since depreciation is a large fixed cost. Its 2023–2026 history shows both how much operating leverage that creates and how sharply profits swing with the cycle. Revenue nearly tripled in 2023 as the Lingang plant ramped. Profit peaked in 2024. In 2025 a domestic price war pushed the gross margin to about −6% in the fourth quarter even though shipments rose by more than two-thirds. From the second quarter of 2026, tight 8-inch supply and stabilising 6-inch prices lifted the quarterly gross margin to 27.5%. The company competes on scale (2025 output of about 690,400 equivalent wafers), on diameter leadership (8-inch volume production, and the first 12-inch products) and on qualification with tier-one overseas IDMs, which have historically paid much better margins than domestic buyers.

SK siltron css was one of the few vertically integrated, merchant silicon carbide materials suppliers in the West. It grew 4H-SiC crystals, fabricated 150 mm conductive substrates and deposited epitaxial layers for power-device makers such as Qorvo and Infineon. It traced its technology to Dow Corning's Auburn, Michigan program. SK Siltron bought it from DuPont for about USD 450 million in 2020 as a second growth engine alongside its core 300 mm silicon wafer business. With a USD 300 million Bay County plant, a USD 544 million U.S. Department of Energy loan and strong political backing, it aimed for a top-five global position and a move to 200 mm. Instead, the electric-vehicle slowdown and a Chinese-led price collapse in SiC substrates turned the business into a large cash drain. In July 2026 SK Siltron chose to liquidate it, as part of the restructuring that preceded Doosan's acquisition of the parent. --- **What the company does.** SK Siltron CSS manufactured silicon carbide wafers, the starting material for SiC power semiconductors such as MOSFETs and Schottky diodes. Those devices are used in EV traction inverters, on-board chargers, DC-DC converters, renewable-energy inverters, energy storage and industrial power supplies. The process ran from physical-vapour-transport crystal growth (boules) through slicing, lapping and chemical-mechanical polishing to finished substrates. On top of this sat a chemical-vapour-deposition epitaxy business that supplied wafers with device-ready drift layers. **Company's own description.** The company described itself as providing the global compound semiconductor industry with a reliable source of leading-edge, production-proven, high-crystal-quality SiC wafers and epitaxy services. It said its expertise extended from crystal growth through wafer fabrication and epitaxy. It also stressed that, as a dedicated materials supplier, it did not make devices or compete with its customers, and that it was backed by the resources and purchasing power of SK Siltron. Its R&D messaging highlighted renewable-energy-powered and sustainable manufacturing. **Business model and revenue model.** Revenue came almost entirely from product sales: bare substrates and epitaxial wafers sold per wafer, mostly under multi-year long-term supply agreements (LTAs) with device makers. Epitaxy was also offered as a service. There was no subscription or licensing revenue of any significance. The 2022 Qorvo contract covered both bare and epitaxial wafers. The 2024 Infineon contract covered 150 mm substrates, with a later phase to support Infineon's move to 200 mm. **Value-chain position.** The company sat at the most capital-intensive and yield-sensitive step of the SiC chain: crystal growth and substrate fabrication. That step accounts for a large share of the cost of a finished SiC MOSFET. Its customers are integrated device manufacturers (IDMs), fabless-plus-foundry device firms and epitaxy houses. Within SK Group the business was intended to anchor a SiC value chain that also included SK Powertech (formerly Yes Power Technix), a SiC power-device designer acquired by SK in 2022, and SK Siltron's own SiC wafering and epitaxy line at Gumi Plant 2 in Korea. SK Siltron described this as a Korea-U.S. dual production system: crystal growth in Michigan, with wafering and epitaxy in Michigan and Gumi. **Customer types.** Customers were power-semiconductor IDMs in Europe and the U.S. (Infineon named; others not publicly disclosed), U.S. SiC FET suppliers (Qorvo, through its UnitedSiC unit) and automotive-oriented power-module makers. Korean reporting describes the customer base as mainly overseas automotive power-semiconductor manufacturers. **End-markets served.** Battery-electric vehicles were the dominant driver. Industrial drives, solar and wind inverters, energy storage and fast EV chargers were secondary. The company and the DOE said its wafers could extend EV driving range by about 7.5% compared with silicon-based power electronics. Qorvo cited 5–10%. The company also said one 150 mm wafer yields about 450 power chips, enough for the power systems of up to eight EVs. **Independent characterisation.** SK Siltron CSS was a subscale merchant substrate supplier caught between two forces. On one side were vertically integrated Western leaders: Wolfspeed, Coherent, and onsemi and STMicroelectronics with captive supply. On the other were rapidly scaling, state-supported Chinese producers such as TanKeBlue and SICC, which drove 150 mm prices down sharply from 2023. The technology was credible, with decades of Dow Corning heritage and published work on ultra-thick epitaxy and larger-diameter growth. But revenue never got close to the scale needed to absorb the fixed costs of the Bay City expansion. The business peaked at about KRW 105 billion of revenue in 2024 against an operating loss of KRW 108 billion. In 2025, revenue fell 73% and the loss doubled.

Guangdong Tianyu Semiconductor is a Dongguan-based pure-play maker of silicon carbide (SiC) epitaxial wafers. These wafers are the active-layer substrates on which SiC MOSFETs, Schottky diodes and power modules are built. Founded in 2009 as China's first specialist SiC epitaxy house, it brought 4-inch epitaxy into mass production in 2014, 6-inch in 2018 and 8-inch in 2023. By 2024 revenue and volume it was the largest self-manufactured SiC epitaxial wafer supplier in China, with a 30.6% revenue share and 32.5% volume share. It was also the third-largest China-based supplier globally, at 6.7% of revenue and 7.8% of volume. The company sells to power-device makers serving electric vehicles, charging, photovoltaics, energy storage, rail, smart grid and, more recently, AI data-centre power supplies. Strategic investors include Huawei's Hubble and BYD. It listed in Hong Kong in December 2025 to fund an expansion toward 800,000 wafers a year, centred on 8-inch capacity at its new Songshan Lake Ecological Park base. --- ### What the company does Tianyu grows thin, precisely doped single-crystal SiC layers on purchased SiC substrates by chemical vapour deposition (CVD). The result, an epitaxial wafer, is the starting material for SiC power devices. Epitaxy sets the drift-layer thickness and doping that determine a device's blocking voltage, on-resistance and yield. Defect density, thickness uniformity and doping uniformity in the epi layer therefore pass straight through to device performance and cost. Tianyu says it has mastered the full production cycle for epi wafers used in unipolar and bipolar devices rated from 600 V to 30,000 V. The company's own description in its annual report covers the R&D, production and sale of 4-inch, 6-inch and 8-inch SiC epitaxial wafers, plus value-added services: SiC epitaxial foundry (toll processing on customer-supplied substrates), epitaxial wafer cleaning and SiC-related inspection and testing. ### Business and revenue model | Revenue stream | Model | FY2025 share of revenue (%) | |---|---|---| | Self-manufactured 6-inch epitaxial wafers | Product sale, priced per wafer by specification | 45.3 | | Self-manufactured 8-inch epitaxial wafers | Product sale, priced per wafer by specification | 28.0 | | Self-manufactured 4-inch epitaxial wafers | Product sale | 0.4 | | Other sales and services (mainly foundry) | Service fee per processed wafer; cleaning and test fees | 26.3 | **Self-manufactured 6-inch epitaxial wafers:** Model: Product sale, priced per wafer by specification; FY2025 share of revenue (%): 45.3 **Self-manufactured 8-inch epitaxial wafers:** Model: Product sale, priced per wafer by specification; FY2025 share of revenue (%): 28.0 **Self-manufactured 4-inch epitaxial wafers:** Model: Product sale; FY2025 share of revenue (%): 0.4 **Other sales and services (mainly foundry):** Model: Service fee per processed wafer; cleaning and test fees; FY2025 share of revenue (%): 26.3 All revenue is product or service. There is no subscription or licensing revenue. The business is capital intensive: CVD reactors, cleanrooms and metrology make up most of the asset base. Substrates are the largest variable cost, and the company has steadily moved them to domestic suppliers. ### Value-chain position The SiC chain runs: high-purity powder → crystal growth and substrate (e.g. SICC/Tianyue Advanced, TanKeBlue, Wolfspeed, Coherent) → epitaxy (Tianyu, Hantian Tiancheng, Resonac, SK Siltron) → device fabrication (Infineon, STMicroelectronics, onsemi, ROHM, BYD Semiconductor, and Chinese fabless and IDM players) → modules → end systems. Tianyu is a merchant epitaxy supplier. Unlike vertically integrated device makers that grow their own epi, it sells to device makers that choose to outsource epitaxy, either fully or for overflow capacity. ### Customers and end-markets Customers are SiC power-device manufacturers (IDMs and foundries) in China and abroad, plus research institutes. End uses include new energy (EV traction inverters and on-board chargers, PV inverters, charging piles, energy storage), rail transit, smart grids, general aviation and home appliances. Since 2026 they also include server and data-centre power: overseas revenue jumped in the first half of 2026, which management linked to AI computing and data-centre demand. Customer concentration is high. The five largest customers accounted for 73.5%, 61.5% and 77.2% of revenue in 2021, 2022 and 2023, and 91.4% in the first half of 2024. The single largest customer accounted for 30.9%, 21.1%, 42.0% and 52.6% over the same periods. In 2023 one South Korean customer bought RMB491 million of 6-inch epi wafers, 42% of revenue. That customer's orders fell to RMB35.96 million in the first half of 2024, the main cause of the 2024 revenue collapse. ### Independent characterisation Tianyu is a scale-driven, price-taking materials supplier. Its fortunes depend on SiC device demand and on the supply-demand balance for substrates and epi capacity. The company enjoyed first-mover status in China and rapid growth from 2021 to 2023. It then hit a severe price-led downturn in 2024, which forced a RMB315 million inventory write-down, and recovered only partly in 2025. The strategic bet is that 8-inch wafers, foundry services and international customers (Korea, Japan, Europe) will restore utilisation and margins as demand broadens from EVs into AI data-centre power.

Epiworld is the world's largest independent supplier of silicon carbide epitaxial wafers. Epitaxial wafers are the engineered layer grown on a SiC substrate, from which power MOSFETs and diodes are made. According to China Insights Consultancy (CIC), cited in the prospectus, the company held a 31.6% global share of SiC epitaxy by wafer volume in 2024. It has ranked first since 2023, ahead of a second-placed supplier at 19.4%. The company was founded by Dr. Zhao Jianhui, who was the first researcher elected an IEEE Fellow for contributions to SiC technology. It was the first in China to commercialise 3-, 4-, 6- and 8-inch SiC epitaxy, the first globally to supply 8-inch epitaxial wafers in volume, and the first to launch a 12-inch SiC epitaxial wafer (December 2025). It led the drafting of the first SEMI international standard for SiC epitaxy. Customers include four of the world's top five and eight of the top ten SiC power-device makers. After a 2024–2025 price-driven downturn, revenue nearly doubled in H1 2026 on demand from AI data-centre power supplies. Management's preliminary guidance for FY2026 is revenue of RMB1.61–1.76 billion. The company profiled here is Epiworld International Co., Ltd. (瀚天天成電子科技（廈門）股份有限公司), a joint-stock company incorporated in the People's Republic of China. Its H shares trade on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong under stock code 2726. Its website is www.epiworld.com.cn. It is the silicon carbide (SiC) epitaxial wafer maker named in the Global Silicon Carbide Epitaxial Wafers Market. **What the company does.** Epiworld researches, mass-produces and sells 4H-SiC homoepitaxial wafers. An epitaxial wafer is a polished SiC substrate on which a precisely doped single-crystal SiC layer, or a stack of layers, is grown by chemical vapour deposition. Device makers build the active regions of SiC MOSFETs, Schottky barrier diodes and modules in this layer. The thickness, doping uniformity and defect density of the epitaxy largely determine device voltage rating, yield and reliability. The prospectus estimates that epitaxy accounts for about 25% of the value of the SiC power-device chain. **The company's own description.** The 2025 annual report describes Epiworld as a global leader and innovator in SiC epitaxy that develops, mass-produces and sells SiC epitaxial wafers for SiC semiconductor device manufacturing. Its products are mainly 4-, 6- and 8-inch wafers. They serve electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, renewable energy and energy storage, with AI computing and data centres, smart grids, home appliances and eVTOL named as emerging applications. **Business and revenue model.** Revenue comes from three reporting categories: **Turnkey service (epitaxial wafer sales):** Epiworld buys the SiC substrate and other inputs, grows the epitaxy and sells the finished wafer. This is a product-sale model and was 90.9% of FY2025 revenue. **Consign service (epitaxy foundry):** The customer supplies its own substrate. Epiworld grows the epitaxial layer and charges for processing plus auxiliary materials. This service-fee model carries a higher gross margin, because substrate cost is excluded from revenue and cost, but it shrank to 3.6% of FY2025 revenue. **Others:** Mainly ancillary product and material sales, 5.5% of FY2025 revenue. The company has no subscription or licensing revenue. The mix has moved steadily from foundry to turnkey sales: turnkey was 63.0% of revenue in 2022, 86.2% in 2024 and 90.9% in 2025, while consign fell from 35.5% in 2022 to 12.4% in 2024 and 3.6% in 2025. This lifts reported revenue per wafer, because the substrate is passed through, but compresses percentage gross margin and exposes the company to substrate-price swings. **Value-chain position.** In the SiC power chain, Epiworld sits between substrate growers (crystal growth and wafering) and device makers (design, front-end fabrication, packaging and test). Its principal supplier inputs are SiC substrates, process gases and CVD epitaxial reactors. Substrate supply is concentrated: the largest supplier accounted for about 25.3% of FY2025 purchases and the top five for about 60.2%. **Customer types.** Customers are SiC power-device makers: integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) in Europe, the US and Japan, Chinese IDMs and fabless-plus-foundry players, and specialty-process foundries. Over the 41 months from 2022 to May 2025 the company served 123 customers and delivered more than 500,000 epitaxial wafers. Concentration is high: in FY2025 the largest customer contributed about 35.0% of revenue and the top five about 60.1%. Companies buying 8-inch epitaxy rose from 15 at end-2024 to more than 28 at end-2025 and 35 by the 2026 interim report date. In H1 2026 the company added six new customers, including a European automotive-parts maker and a leading Chinese specialty-process foundry. **End-markets.** Electric vehicles were the largest end-market for SiC power devices, at about 74% of 2024 device demand according to CIC. Other markets are on-board and off-board charging, solar inverters, energy storage, industrial power, rail traction and smart grid. From late 2025, power-supply units for AI data centres (high-voltage DC architectures and server PSUs) became the fastest-growing source of demand. Management attributes the H1 2026 revenue surge mainly to AI data-centre orders. **Independent characterisation.** Epiworld is essentially a merchant epitaxy specialist with scale. Most large Western SiC device makers (Wolfspeed, Infineon, STMicroelectronics, onsemi, Rohm) run in-house epitaxy, but they use merchant suppliers for capacity overflow, second-sourcing and new wafer diameters. Epiworld's position as the largest merchant source, with qualified 8-inch capacity, makes it a swing supplier to those IDMs. Its economics are therefore cyclical. When device makers have spare internal capacity, as in 2024–2025, merchant volumes and prices fall first and foundry work disappears fastest. When demand inflects, as in 2026, the merchant supplier sees outsized volume gains. The company's moat rests on process know-how (thick, multilayer and trench-refill epitaxy), qualification with tier-one automotive IDMs, standard-setting credibility and first-mover position in 8- and 12-inch epitaxy.

GRIKIN is China's longest-established supplier of high-purity metal sputtering targets for integrated circuits and the main operating asset of GRINM Advanced Materials. It is one of the few Chinese target makers that controls the whole chain: ultra-high-purity metal refining, target melting and hot pressing, bonding, precision machining, cleaning and packaging. Its range covers aluminium, titanium, copper, tantalum, cobalt, copper-manganese, nickel-platinum and tungsten targets. Its 12-inch cobalt, copper and copper-manganese targets have reportedly passed 5 nm process qualification at TSMC. It ships in volume to SMIC, YMTC, CXMT, Samsung and Intel. Together, the Changping (Beijing) and Dezhou (Shandong) bases can produce about 78,000 target pieces a year. A second Dezhou phase, approved in July 2026, adds 30,000 pieces a year. Big Fund II's July 2025 investment links GRIKIN directly to China's national semiconductor fund. GRINM's 2026 sale of its rare-earth and infrared-optics businesses has made GRIKIN the group's core earnings driver. --- **What the company does.** GRINM Advanced Materials' 2025 annual report describes GRIKIN as mainly engaged in the R&D and production of ultra-high-purity metal raw materials and thin-film materials for microelectronics and optoelectronics, and of precious-metal materials and products. Its main products are high-purity metal targets, evaporation materials, and precious-metal alloys and compounds. Beijing business-registration records describe a broader scope that also covers trading in nonferrous materials, import and export, and technical consulting and services for rare and precious metals. GRIKIN's own materials describe three pillars: high-purity thin-film materials, rare and precious metal functional materials, and platinum-group metal materials. **Business model.** GRIKIN is a vertically integrated materials manufacturer, and its sales are almost entirely of manufactured products. Revenue falls into three streams: - **Thin-film materials (sputtering targets, evaporation materials)** — Nature: Custom-engineered consumables qualified per fab, tool and process step, then supplied under recurring purchase orders; Margin profile (FY2025, parent product-line basis): Gross margin 18.63% **Platinum-group products:** Nature: Sales of high-value precious metals (Pt, Pd, Rh, etc.) and fabricated products, where metal prices pass through to customers; Margin profile (FY2025, parent product-line basis): Gross margin 1.63% - **Precious metals, nonferrous metals and high-end manufacturing** — Nature: Precious-metal alloys, compounds and fabricated parts; Margin profile (FY2025, parent product-line basis): Gross margin 11.57% There is no subscription or licensing revenue of any size. The parent's 2025 lithium-sulfide technology transfer (RMB 107.57 million gain) was booked at the former rare-earth subsidiary, not at GRIKIN. Metal content dominates reported revenue in the platinum-group and precious-metal lines, so those lines inflate group revenue at very thin margins. Profit at GRIKIN is driven mainly by targets. **Value-chain position.** GRIKIN sits upstream of the wafer fab, in the PVD (physical vapour deposition) consumables layer. It buys 4N–5N metal feedstock, mainly copper, tantalum, titanium, cobalt, nickel, platinum, aluminium and tungsten. It refines this to 5N–6N purity, forms the target blanks and bonds them to backing plates. It then sells the finished targets to fabs, either directly or through tool-specific qualification on Applied Materials and Chinese PVD platforms. A target is used up during sputtering and must be replaced, so demand tracks wafer starts and the number of metal layers per wafer rather than equipment spending. **Customer types and end markets.** **Leading-edge foundries:** Examples (as publicly reported): TSMC (5 nm process qualification reported), Samsung, Intel; Products used: 12-inch Co, Cu, CuMn targets **Chinese foundries:** Examples (as publicly reported): SMIC; Products used: Al, Ti, Cu, Ta, NiPt targets **Memory makers:** Examples (as publicly reported): YMTC (confirmed by GRINM on its investor platform on 27 May 2026 as a long-term partner, with GRIKIN an important target supplier), CXMT; Products used: Cu, Ta, Ti, W targets **Power and specialty devices:** Examples (as publicly reported): Not named publicly; Products used: Al, Ti, NiPt targets **Compound semiconductor and LED:** Examples (as publicly reported): Not named publicly; Products used: Precious-metal evaporation materials **Industrial and catalyst users:** Examples (as publicly reported): Not named publicly; Products used: Platinum-group products **Independent characterisation.** GRIKIN is best read as China's state-backed second domestic target champion. It is smaller than Ningbo Konfoong (Jiangfeng) in target revenue, but has deeper metallurgical roots and more control over its own high-purity raw materials. That integration gives it a structural advantage in copper, cobalt and NiPt. Its weaknesses are margins that remain well below global peers (thin-film gross margin of 18.6% in FY2025 against Konfoong's 27–31% on targets) and a low-margin precious-metals business that dilutes reported returns. The 2025–2026 restructuring removed the rare-earth and optics drag at parent level. It also positioned GRIKIN to benefit from AI-driven demand for copper interconnect, HBM and advanced packaging, and from China's push to buy domestic semiconductor materials.

The Plansee Group is a family-owned powder-metallurgy group from Tyrol. It is the largest producer of tungsten products outside China and a leading global specialist in molybdenum. It is vertically integrated from ore concentrate and scrap recycling through powders and semi-finished products to engineered components and cemented-carbide tools. It has two business areas. Plansee High Performance Materials makes molybdenum and tungsten products, including sputtering targets, ion-implantation components and thermal-management parts for semiconductor and display fabs. CERATIZIT makes carbide cutting tools and wear parts. Global Tungsten & Powders in the United States handles raw-material conversion and recycling. The group also holds strategic minority stakes in Molymet (31%), the world's largest molybdenum processor, and Almonty Industries (10%), which runs the Sangdong tungsten mine in South Korea. In FY2025/26 it shipped about 14,300 tonnes of tungsten products, roughly 12% of global supply, and 92% of its tungsten feedstock came from recycling. In a market where China has cut exports and tungsten prices have risen as much as tenfold, this supply security is its main competitive advantage. **What the company does.** Plansee turns two refractory metals, molybdenum and tungsten, into high-performance materials, components and tools. These metals have very high melting points, high density, low vapour pressure, high strength at high temperature, high thermal conductivity and good corrosion resistance. Plansee shapes them almost entirely by powder metallurgy: it presses and sinters metal powders and then forms, machines, coats and joins them. The group's own short description is two business areas under one parent. Plansee High Performance Materials makes metallic products from molybdenum and tungsten. CERATIZIT makes cemented-carbide (tungsten carbide) cutting tools and wear-protection solutions. Raw-material security comes from recycling and long-term partnerships with mining companies. **Business model.** The revenue model is almost entirely product sales. Most products are made to order, engineered to customer specifications and supplied as recurring consumables or spare parts. The exceptions are the standard tool catalogue and online shop sales at CERATIZIT, and standard semi-finished products at Plansee. There is no material subscription or licensing revenue. Recurring wear-part economics drive much of the semiconductor-related business. Sputtering targets are consumed in PVD tools and replaced on a regular cycle. Ion-implanter source parts (filaments, arc chambers, liners, extraction electrodes) wear out and are bought as spare parts. Plansee positions itself here as the world's largest second-source supplier, offering more than 2,000 implanter components. In cutting tools, inserts and solid-carbide drills and mills are consumables bought in proportion to machining activity. **Value-chain position.** Few refractory-metals companies cover as much of the value chain: **Mining (upstream):** Plansee Group activity: No owned mines. 10% stake in Almonty Industries and a 21-year offtake for most of the Sangdong mine's tungsten concentrate **Concentrate and scrap processing:** Plansee Group activity: GTP (Towanda, USA) converts concentrate and scrap to APT and tungsten oxide. Stadler Metalle (Germany) collects and trades tungsten scrap **Molybdenum processing:** Plansee Group activity: 31% stake in Molymet (Chile), the world's largest molybdenum processor **Powders:** Plansee Group activity: Tungsten, molybdenum and tungsten carbide powders (GTP, Plansee, CERATIZIT) **Semi-finished products:** Plansee Group activity: Sheets, rods, wires, tubes and blanks (Plansee HPM) **Components:** Plansee Group activity: Sputtering targets, implanter parts, X-ray anodes, heat sinks, furnace hot zones, tungsten heavy alloys (Plansee HPM) **Tools:** Plansee Group activity: Carbide inserts, solid-carbide tools, wear parts (CERATIZIT, KOMET, WNT and others) **Recycling (closed loop):** Plansee Group activity: Take-back of used tools and components, with returned material fed back to GTP and Plansee **Customer types and end markets.** Customers are OEMs and industrial manufacturers. They include semiconductor fabs and semiconductor-equipment makers, flat-panel display makers, medical-imaging OEMs (CT and X-ray), aerospace engine makers and their suppliers, defence contractors, the automotive industry and its suppliers, general machine-building, energy-technology and lighting companies, and the construction and mining-tool industries. The group lists its main sales markets as consumer electronics, automotive, mechanical engineering, construction, energy engineering, medical technology, semiconductors and aerospace. For FY2025/26 the group reported that mechanical engineering rose to about 25% of sales and aerospace to about 13%. **Independent characterisation.** Plansee is best understood as a vertically integrated tungsten platform with a molybdenum franchise attached. Two things set it apart from other European specialty-materials groups. The first is raw-material control: at 92% recycled feedstock, its tungsten recycling rate is far above the industry norm (about 70% of tungsten used worldwide is never recycled). The second is breadth from powder to finished tool. Semiconductors make up a smaller share of group revenue than at pure-play target makers such as JX Advanced Metals or Konfoong. The group has said the semiconductor industry has become its biggest single success driver, and management expects semiconductors to be the strongest-growing end market in FY2026/27. In sputtering targets, Plansee is strongest in molybdenum, tungsten and tungsten-titanium (WTi) targets for semiconductor metallisation and barrier layers. It is also strong in very large planar and rotary molybdenum-alloy targets for TFT-LCD and OLED displays. It is not a major player in copper, tantalum, titanium, aluminium or cobalt targets for advanced logic interconnects. JX Advanced Metals, Honeywell, Linde/Praxair, Konfoong and Tosoh dominate those.

Linde Advanced Material Technologies is the advanced-materials and surface-engineering arm of Linde plc, the world's largest industrial gases company. It makes and supplies four kinds of engineered materials. The first is thermal spray and diffusion coatings that protect high-value components against wear, corrosion, oxidation and heat. The second is gas-atomised metal powders sold under the TruForm brand for additive manufacturing, hot isostatic pressing, metal injection moulding and cold spray. The third is thermal spray equipment. The fourth is high-purity physical vapour deposition (PVD) sputtering targets for semiconductor and electronics fabs. The electronics franchise comes from the 1999 purchase of Materials Research Corporation from Sony. It is vertically integrated from metal refining, including an in-house 6N copper refining line, through target fabrication, bonding, recycling and refill. LAMT is a niche business inside a USD 34 billion group. It sits in Linde's "Other" reporting category, which gives it access to Linde's balance sheet, its semiconductor-customer relationships and its process technology, but also means its performance is not separately disclosed. ### What the company does Linde AMT is a materials-science and surface-engineering business organised around four operating lines. 1. **Global Coating Services.** Service-based application of metallic, carbide and ceramic coatings by thermal spray (plasma, high-velocity oxy-fuel, detonation), diffusion and slurry processes. The coatings go on customer components such as aero-engine and industrial gas turbine parts, landing gear, pump and valve components, paper and printing rolls, glass-making equipment, bakeware moulds and industrial wear parts. The business also offers coating alternatives to hexavalent chrome and cadmium, laser ablation and related surface finishing. 2. **Atomization.** Production of thermal spray powders, TruForm gas-atomised metal powders for additive manufacturing and other powder-metallurgy routes, and specialty ceramic powders. The ceramic range includes multi-metallic component oxide powders for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC), solid oxide electrolyser cells (SOEC), and environmental and thermal barrier coatings (EBC/TBC). 3. **Equipment.** Design and manufacture of thermal spray systems, guns and consumables for customers who run their own coating operations. 4. **Electronics.** Manufacture of high-purity PVD sputtering targets and evaporation materials for semiconductor, flat panel display, memory, photovoltaic and other thin-film uses. Metals include tantalum, copper and copper alloys, aluminium and aluminium alloys, tungsten and tungsten alloys, titanium, nickel and nickel alloys, and precious metals including gold. The business also runs precious-metal programmes with recycling, refill and flexible metal-supply options. ### Company self-description Linde describes LAMT as a provider of metallic and ceramic coatings, sputtering targets, additive manufacturing powders and coating equipment that help industries push past performance limits. LAMT's own website says its solutions across Global Coating Services, Atomization, Equipment and Electronics deliver performance, economic value and better sustainability, and that they underpin industrial efficiency and component life. In Linde plc's conflict-minerals filings (Form SD for calendar 2023 and 2024), the business is described as supplying wear-resistant and high-temperature corrosion-resistant metallic and ceramic coatings and powders. ### Business model and revenue model | Revenue stream | Nature | Model | |---|---|---| | Coating services | Toll-coating of customer-owned components at LAMT service centres, often under OEM-qualified process specifications | Service (per-part or per-job pricing; recurring through maintenance, repair and overhaul cycles) | | Powders | Thermal spray, TruForm AM and ceramic powders | Product (per-kilogram pricing; alloy-dependent; often qualified to customer specifications) | | Equipment | Thermal spray systems, guns, spare parts and consumables | Product plus aftermarket | | Sputtering targets | Machined, bonded high-purity targets sold to fabs and tool OEMs | Product; precious-metal targets may be priced as fabrication plus metal value, with metal-leasing, recycling and refill options | | Recycling and refill | Reclaiming spent targets and precious metals | Service, embedded in target programmes | **Coating services:** Nature: Toll-coating of customer-owned components at LAMT service centres, often under OEM-qualified process specifications; Model: Service (per-part or per-job pricing; recurring through maintenance, repair and overhaul cycles) **Powders:** Nature: Thermal spray, TruForm AM and ceramic powders; Model: Product (per-kilogram pricing; alloy-dependent; often qualified to customer specifications) **Equipment:** Nature: Thermal spray systems, guns, spare parts and consumables; Model: Product plus aftermarket **Sputtering targets:** Nature: Machined, bonded high-purity targets sold to fabs and tool OEMs; Model: Product; precious-metal targets may be priced as fabrication plus metal value, with metal-leasing, recycling and refill options **Recycling and refill:** Nature: Reclaiming spent targets and precious metals; Model: Service, embedded in target programmes Linde does not disclose the split between products and services for LAMT. Because the company was historically described as primarily a service-based business, coating services are likely the largest single stream, with products (powders, targets, equipment) making up the remainder. LAMT does not report subscription or licensing revenue. ### Value-chain position LAMT sits at the materials and process layer of several value chains. In aerospace and energy, it is a Tier-2 or Tier-3 supplier, applying coatings for OEMs and MRO providers and supplying powders to coaters and AM part makers. In semiconductors, it is a direct materials supplier to wafer fabs and PVD-tool makers. Here it competes in a concentrated market led by JX Advanced Metals. In electronics, LAMT is vertically integrated backward into metal refining (6N copper) and forward into target end-of-life recovery. ### Customer types and end markets | End market | Typical customers | Products used | |---|---|---| | Aviation and aerospace | Engine OEMs, airframers, MRO shops | Thermal spray and diffusion coatings, powders, Cr6+/Cd-replacement coatings | | Power generation | Gas turbine OEMs and operators | Thermal barrier, environmental barrier and wear coatings | | Semiconductors and electronics | Logic, memory and foundry fabs; display and PV makers; PVD equipment makers | Sputtering targets, evaporation materials, precious-metal programmes | | Defence and naval | US Navy supply chain, AM printer OEMs | TruForm powders (for example, 70-30 copper-nickel) | | Oil and gas | Pump, valve and drilling-tool makers | Wear and corrosion coatings | | Paper, printing, glass, food | Mill operators, printing, glassware and bakeware makers | Roll coatings, mould coatings, fluoropolymer coatings | | Chemicals and pharmaceuticals | Process-equipment makers | Corrosion-resistant coatings | | Energy transition | SOFC/SOEC developers | Multi-metallic oxide ceramic powders | **Aviation and aerospace:** Typical customers: Engine OEMs, airframers, MRO shops; Products used: Thermal spray and diffusion coatings, powders, Cr6+/Cd-replacement coatings **Power generation:** Typical customers: Gas turbine OEMs and operators; Products used: Thermal barrier, environmental barrier and wear coatings **Semiconductors and electronics:** Typical customers: Logic, memory and foundry fabs; display and PV makers; PVD equipment makers; Products used: Sputtering targets, evaporation materials, precious-metal programmes **Defence and naval:** Typical customers: US Navy supply chain, AM printer OEMs; Products used: TruForm powders (for example, 70-30 copper-nickel) **Oil and gas:** Typical customers: Pump, valve and drilling-tool makers; Products used: Wear and corrosion coatings **Paper, printing, glass, food:** Typical customers: Mill operators, printing, glassware and bakeware makers; Products used: Roll coatings, mould coatings, fluoropolymer coatings **Chemicals and pharmaceuticals:** Typical customers: Process-equipment makers; Products used: Corrosion-resistant coatings **Energy transition:** Typical customers: SOFC/SOEC developers; Products used: Multi-metallic oxide ceramic powders ### Independent characterisation LAMT is a portfolio of small but technically demanding niche businesses. Each is defensible through process know-how, customer qualification and certification rather than scale. The electronics business stands out because it faces the semiconductor supercycle, needs fab qualification, is concentrated in Orangeburg (New York), Toulouse and Mercus (France) and Cheonan (South Korea), and is aligned with Linde's broader growth in electronics, which Linde management calls its fastest-growing end market. The coatings and powders businesses are tied to the aerospace build and MRO cycle and to defence reshoring. Strategically, LAMT is non-core to Linde's gases model. Linde groups it with corporate costs and global helium wholesale in "Other", a category whose operating profit swung from USD 62 million in FY2024 to a USD 6 million loss in FY2025.

Xuzhou B&C Chemical is one of China's earliest and best-known makers of semiconductor photoresist materials. It positions itself as a fully integrated domestic supplier covering photoresist monomers, specialty resins, photoacid generators (PAGs), finished photoresists and electronic-grade solvents. The company built its reputation as a monomer supplier to global photoresist makers: in 2012 it became the only non-Japanese monomer supplier to JSR. Since then it has moved downstream into KrF, dry and immersion ArF, I-line, G-line, packaging and electron-beam photoresists for Chinese wafer fabs. Its backers include Huawei's Hubble Technology Investment, Huamao Technology and state-linked funds, and it reached unicorn status in 2023 at a valuation of about RMB 7 billion. Its strategic value as a substitute for imported lithography materials is high. Its financial record is weak, however: it reported losses every year from 2021 to 2024, it failed a 2021–2023 performance commitment, and it faces several investor and creditor lawsuits in 2026. Its trajectory now depends on whether domestic fabs adopt its advanced KrF and ArF resists at volume. **What the company does.** Xuzhou B&C Chemical researches, develops, manufactures and sells materials used in semiconductor photolithography. Photoresist is the light-sensitive coating applied to a wafer before exposure. After exposure and development it forms the pattern that later etch or implant steps transfer into the device. The company's products cover the whole photoresist bill of materials: **Photoresist monomers:** These small-molecule building blocks (for example acrylate and methacrylate monomers with acid-labile protecting groups) are polymerised into photoresist resins. This was the company's original business, which it sold to international photoresist formulators. **Photoresist resins:** These are the polymers that form the backbone of KrF and ArF chemically amplified resists. **Photoacid generators (PAGs):** These compounds release acid when exposed, driving the chemical amplification reaction. **Finished photoresists:** These include ArF (193 nm) dry and immersion, KrF (248 nm), I-line (365 nm), G-line (436 nm), electron-beam resists and advanced-packaging resists. **Electronic-grade solvents and ancillary chemicals:** The production base was built with 10,000 tonnes a year of electronic solvent capacity. **Company's own description.** The company describes itself as a national high-tech enterprise that researches, produces and sells mid- to high-end photoresists, photoresist monomers and photoresist resins. It says it has achieved independent, domestically controlled supply across monomer, resin, photoacid and finished photoresist. Its corporate profile describes its vision as enriching the material basis of humanity's future world and states a mission of advancing the domestic production of key semiconductor materials. In 2021, during the Hubble financing, the company described itself as the only domestic manufacturer able to produce mid- to high-end photoresist monomers at scale. **Independent characterisation.** In practice the business has two parts that differ in maturity: 1. **A mature, export-oriented monomer and intermediate business.** The company has sold to JSR since 2012 and, according to the 2021 research cited by Huamao's advisers, to Intel. Huamao's 2021 investment materials described the monomer range as covering more than 90% of the global photoresist customer base and named the company as an inventor and producer of advanced EUV photoresist monomers. Before 2021 this business, together with pharmaceutical intermediates, generated most of the company's revenue. One 2026 media analysis reports that more than half of revenue in the first nine months of 2020 came from pharmaceutical intermediates rather than photoresist products. 2. **A growth-stage domestic photoresist business.** This business is run largely through the subsidiary Hanto Chemical (汉拓化学). It is still in qualification and early ramp-up at Chinese fabs. Huamao's investor-relations statements say that from 2022 the company's ArF immersion, ArF dry, KrF and I-line products passed validation at several downstream customers and won orders. The company also says it has more than 40 mid- to high-end photoresist product series. **Business and revenue model.** Revenue comes almost entirely from direct sales of manufactured chemical products. No subscription, licensing or service revenue has been disclosed. Photoresists are sold under qualification-based supply agreements: once a fab qualifies a resist for a specific process layer, switching costs are high and volumes recur. Monomers and resins are sold business-to-business to photoresist formulators. The company reports more than 100 customers, mostly domestic semiconductor manufacturers including major integrated-circuit fabs. In 2021 Huamao's advisers reported that Hanto Chemical served more than 40 customers and was a qualified supplier to Shanghai Huahong and Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC). **Value-chain position.** The company sits in the upstream materials layer of the semiconductor supply chain. It buys basic organic chemicals and solvents. It sells monomers and resins to other resist formulators and finished resists to front-end wafer fabs, advanced-packaging houses and compound-semiconductor and display makers. Its main differentiator is vertical integration from monomer to finished resist. Most Chinese competitors buy resins or PAGs, often from Japan, while B&C makes its own. **End-markets served.** **Logic foundry (mature and advanced nodes):** Products used: Dry ArF (90/65/55 nm), immersion ArF (40/28 nm), KrF, I-line; Status: Qualification and early volume at domestic foundries **Memory (3D NAND, DRAM):** Products used: KrF (including thick-film), ArF; Status: Supplier to YMTC (2021). ArF supplied in small quantities to memory makers **Advanced packaging:** Products used: Packaging photoresists; Status: Commercial **Compound semiconductors / power / LED:** Products used: G-line, I-line; Status: Commercial **Global photoresist formulators:** Products used: Monomers, resins; Status: Mature export business (JSR since 2012) **Pharmaceutical intermediates (legacy):** Products used: Fine-chemical intermediates; Status: Historical revenue contributor

Red Avenue New Materials is a Shanghai-based new-materials group listed in both Shanghai and Hong Kong. It is moving from its original business, tyre rubber chemicals, into semiconductor and display electronic materials. By 2025 sales it is the world's largest supplier of phenolic resin rubber additives for tyres, with a 41.4% global share and 45.9% in China (Frost & Sullivan). Through its subsidiaries Beijing Kempur Microelectronics (北京科华) and Beijing Asahi Electronic Materials (北旭电子), it is also the largest Chinese-owned supplier of semiconductor photoresists (5.8% of China's market) and TFT-array photoresists (26.2% share) in China. Its electronics platform covers G/i-line, KrF and ArF (including immersion) photoresists, bottom anti-reflective coatings (BARC), G5-grade edge-bead-removal (EBR) solvents, its own photoresist resins, display photoresists, organic insulating films and CMP polishing pads. Electronic chemicals rose from about 19% of revenue in 2023 to 32.4% in H1 2026. The group also holds an 8.03% stake in Zhongce Rubber (603049.SH), which supplies a large share of reported profit as associate income. It also runs a 60,000-tonne PBAT biodegradable plastics plant built under a BASF technology licence. --- ### What the company does Red Avenue researches, makes, sells and distributes new chemical materials. It also earns some trading revenue. Under the segment structure in the H-share prospectus, it reports three businesses: 1. **Rubber additives for tyres and other chemical products.** These are phenolic resins used as tackifying, reinforcing and adhesion-promoting resins in tyre and rubber compounding, plus other rubber chemicals and some traded products. The customers are the global tyre industry, and the company says it supplies all of the world's top 75 tyre makers. 2. **Electronic materials.** This segment covers semiconductor photoresists (G-line, i-line, KrF, ArF dry and immersion) and related products (BARC, EBR high-purity solvents, thinners), photoresist resins (phenolic novolac and PHS), display-panel photoresists (TFT-LCD array positive resists, AMOLED high-resolution resists), organic insulating films, light-emitting materials, polyimide-related materials and CMP polishing pads for wafer planarisation. 3. **Fully biodegradable materials.** PBAT resin and modified compounds are made at a 60,000-tonne-per-year plant (phase 1 of a planned 100,000 t/yr project) in the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park, using PBAT polymerisation technology licensed from BASF. Part of the output was designed to be sold through BASF as ecoflex®. The company also holds strategic stakes, most importantly 8.03% of Zhongce Rubber Group, China's largest tyre maker. Zhongce is an equity-accounted associate and a downstream customer. Associate income was CNY 329.6 million in 9M2025 and CNY 242.0 million in 9M2026. That makes Zhongce a major contributor to reported pre-tax profit, which was CNY 547.8 million in 9M2026. ### Business and revenue model | Revenue type (FY2025) | CNY M | % of revenue | |---|---|---| | Self-produced phenolic resins (rubber additives) | 1682 | 49.05 | | Self-produced electronic materials | 922 | 26.88 | | Traded other products | 335 | 9.76 | | Self-produced other products | 311 | 9.06 | | Self-produced biodegradable materials | 106 | 3.11 | | Traded electronic materials | 64 | 1.87 | | Other business | 10 | 0.28 | Almost all revenue comes from selling physical products. There is no subscription or licensing income. The mix in FY2025, by product type in the annual report, was as follows. **Self-produced phenolic resins (rubber additives):** CNY M: 1682; % of revenue: 49.05 **Self-produced electronic materials:** CNY M: 922; % of revenue: 26.88 **Traded other products:** CNY M: 335; % of revenue: 9.76 **Self-produced other products:** CNY M: 311; % of revenue: 9.06 **Self-produced biodegradable materials:** CNY M: 106; % of revenue: 3.11 **Traded electronic materials:** CNY M: 64; % of revenue: 1.87 **Other business:** CNY M: 10; % of revenue: 0.28 About 88% of FY2025 revenue came from products the company makes itself. The rest came from trading, a legacy of its origins as a distributor. Trading lets the company offer tyre and electronics customers a fuller basket of products. ### Value-chain position In tyre chemicals, Red Avenue sits between petrochemical feedstocks (phenol, alkylphenols, formaldehyde, resorcinol) and tyre makers. Phenol is its main input, bought at an average CNY 6,145/t in 2025 and CNY 6,988/t in 9M2026. Its edge comes from scale, proprietary resin formulations, global technical service and long qualification histories with tyre makers. In electronics, the company is a Tier-1 consumables supplier to wafer fabs and display panel makers. It is integrating backwards into photoresist resins and some monomers. Its stated aim is a fully domestic chain running from graded novolac resin design to resin production, resist formulation, resist manufacturing and customer qualification. It has built that chain for high-resolution i-line products and is extending it to KrF (PHS resins) and ArF. Photoresist raw materials still rely heavily on Japanese, US and Korean suppliers. The top five photoresist raw-material suppliers accounted for 53.5% of purchases in 2023 and 62.6% in 2024. ### Customers and end-markets | End-market | Products | Representative customers (as disclosed) | |---|---|---| | Automotive tyres (passenger, truck/bus, OTR) | Tackifying, reinforcing and adhesion phenolic resins and rubber chemicals | Global top-75 tyre makers; Zhongce Rubber (associate); exports focused on the Americas and Europe | | Semiconductor wafer fabrication (8-inch and 12-inch) | G/i-line, KrF, ArF and immersion ArF photoresists, BARC, EBR, CMP pads | SMIC, Hua Hong Group, YMTC, CXMT and dozens of other domestic fabs. The company supplies most of China's 12-inch lines, and 12-inch products were over 50% of semiconductor photoresist revenue in H1 2026 | | Advanced packaging and LED | Thick-film and ultra-thick negative electroplating resists (40–80 µm), i-line chemically amplified thick-film resists | Leading Chinese OSAT/packaging houses | | Flat-panel display | TFT-LCD array positive photoresists, AMOLED high-resolution resists, organic insulating films | BOE (also a JV partner since February 2026), HKC, IRICO/CHOT and others. Six new volume customers were added in 2025 | | Packaging and agriculture | PBAT resin and compounds | Shopping bags, courier bags, agricultural mulch films | **Automotive tyres (passenger, truck/bus, OTR):** Products: Tackifying, reinforcing and adhesion phenolic resins and rubber chemicals; Representative customers (as disclosed): Global top-75 tyre makers; Zhongce Rubber (associate); exports focused on the Americas and Europe **Semiconductor wafer fabrication (8-inch and 12-inch):** Products: G/i-line, KrF, ArF and immersion ArF photoresists, BARC, EBR, CMP pads; Representative customers (as disclosed): SMIC, Hua Hong Group, YMTC, CXMT and dozens of other domestic fabs. The company supplies most of China's 12-inch lines, and 12-inch products were over 50% of semiconductor photoresist revenue in H1 2026 **Advanced packaging and LED:** Products: Thick-film and ultra-thick negative electroplating resists (40–80 µm), i-line chemically amplified thick-film resists; Representative customers (as disclosed): Leading Chinese OSAT/packaging houses **Flat-panel display:** Products: TFT-LCD array positive photoresists, AMOLED high-resolution resists, organic insulating films; Representative customers (as disclosed): BOE (also a JV partner since February 2026), HKC, IRICO/CHOT and others. Six new volume customers were added in 2025 **Packaging and agriculture:** Products: PBAT resin and compounds; Representative customers (as disclosed): Shopping bags, courier bags, agricultural mulch films ### The company's own description and an independent view The FY2025 annual report and the 2026 interim materials describe the company as "a leading integrated new-materials service provider in China." They say it is driven by "two wheels": electronic chemicals and specialty materials for automotive tyres. Its strategy line is "making Chinese materials go global together with the world." The 2025 Sustainability Report's Chair's letter adds that the electronics business has moved from isolated breakthroughs to an integrated ecosystem. It also says the company has started using AI-assisted molecular screening in R&D. Independently, Red Avenue is best seen as a cash-generating global leader in a niche tyre chemical, funding a high-growth but still sub-scale semiconductor materials business, with a financially large minority stake in a tyre maker. Investors are paying an electronics-materials multiple; the valuation is about 53x trailing earnings. In FY2025, about 68% of revenue still came from rubber chemicals. Associate income from Zhongce has accounted for roughly 40–55% of pre-tax profit in recent periods. The investment case therefore turns on whether electronic materials can scale to become the main profit engine. Electronics segment profit was CNY 106 million in H1 2026, up about 180% year on year, but still a minority of group profit.

Telic Company is one of the oldest independent American makers of chrome-coated photomask blanks and precision-coated glass substrates. It was founded in 1968 by three of the physicists who pioneered magnetron sputtering. From a single facility in Valencia, California, it supplies sputtered chrome, aluminum, gold and ITO films, photoresist-coated plates, double-side-polished thin glass and patterned substrates. Its customers are photomask shops, university and government nanofabrication labs, microfluidics and MEMS developers, holography and optics producers, and flat-panel-display and PCB tooling makers. Telic does not compete with Hoya, Shin-Etsu or AGC on leading-edge quartz blanks for advanced semiconductor nodes. Its niche is low-volume, fast-turnaround and large-format work, with resist coating up to 50 × 50 inches and 24-hour coating turns, for customers whose needs fall outside the high-volume mask-blank supply chain. Since joining HEF Photonics, Telic has provided the group's North American lithography, thin-metal deposition and micro-patterning capability, alongside Abrisa Technologies, ZC&R Coatings for Optics, Agama Glass and Evaporated Coatings Inc. --- ### What the company does Telic coats and processes glass and wafer substrates in a cleanroom using physical vapour deposition (PVD), photoresist spin coating, polishing, lithography and lift-off. Its legacy product, made since the 1970s, is the chrome photomask blank: a polished glass plate coated with a sputtered chromium (or chromium-oxide) light-absorbing film and, where required, a photoresist layer. Mask shops and research labs write circuit or microstructure patterns into the resist with laser or e-beam writers, then etch the chrome to make a photomask. Telic also sells blanks coated with other metals (aluminum, gold), holographic resist blanks, coated microscope slides, ITO-coated substrates, digital microfluidic components, patterned thin-film substrates, and finished photomasks and reticles. The company's own current description, from its website, presents Telic as a provider of "Integrated Microfabrication Solutions". It has served semiconductor, photonics, microfluidics and advanced research markets for more than 50 years and highlights large-format processing, integrated manufacturing, rapid development support and production-scale capability. An earlier company description called Telic a "zero defect class 100 manufacturer of high-performance thin metal films for use in photolithography, optics and medical products." ### Business model and revenue model | Revenue stream | Description | Mix | |---|---|---| | Product sales | Standard and custom photomask blanks, coated slides, holographic blanks, aluminum blanks, ITO substrates, photomasks/reticles, microfluidic components | Not publicly disclosed | | Contract processing (toll coating and finishing) | Sputter coating, resist coating, double-sided polishing, lift-off, RF etching, cleaning and packaging of customer-supplied substrates and wafers, with fast-turn (24-hour) options | Not publicly disclosed | Telic is a build-to-order and catalogue manufacturer. Revenue comes from two streams: **Product sales:** Description: Standard and custom photomask blanks, coated slides, holographic blanks, aluminum blanks, ITO substrates, photomasks/reticles, microfluidic components; Mix: Not publicly disclosed **Contract processing (toll coating and finishing):** Description: Sputter coating, resist coating, double-sided polishing, lift-off, RF etching, cleaning and packaging of customer-supplied substrates and wafers, with fast-turn (24-hour) options; Mix: Not publicly disclosed Telic has no subscription, licensing or recurring-software revenue. Its sputtering patents date from 1975–1996 and have expired, so it earns no royalties. ### Value-chain position Telic sits between raw-substrate suppliers and mask and device makers: - **Specialty glass makers (soda-lime; borosilicate such as Corning Eagle, Schott D263, Schott AF32, Schott Borofloat), sputter target vendors, photoresist suppliers** — Telic: Glass preparation and polishing → cleaning → sputter metallization (Cr, Al, Au, ITO) → resist/BARC coating → optional patterning and lift-off → cleanroom packaging; Downstream (customers): Photomask shops, university and national-lab nanofabrication centres, MEMS and microfluidics developers, holography and optics makers, FPD/MCM start-ups, PCB tooling masters, life-science slide users ### Customer types and end markets | End market | Typical Telic products / services | |---|---| | Semiconductor and photomask | Chrome photomask blanks, reticles, photomasks, wafer coating | | Nanofabrication and academic research | Small-lot resist-coated blanks, metallized wafers, fast-turn coatings | | Microfluidics and lab-on-chip | Digital microfluidic components, patterned thin-film substrates, thin polished glass | | Optics and photonics | Metal and ITO-coated optics substrates, patterned thin films | | Holography | Holographic resist blanks | | Flat-panel display, MCM and PCB tooling | Large-format photomask blanks on soda-lime and borosilicate glass | | Life sciences and medical | Gold-coated and other coated microscope slides | | Defense, security and aerospace (through HEF Photonics) | Etched and metallized glass functions combined with group shaping and coating capabilities | **Semiconductor and photomask:** Typical Telic products / services: Chrome photomask blanks, reticles, photomasks, wafer coating **Nanofabrication and academic research:** Typical Telic products / services: Small-lot resist-coated blanks, metallized wafers, fast-turn coatings **Microfluidics and lab-on-chip:** Typical Telic products / services: Digital microfluidic components, patterned thin-film substrates, thin polished glass **Optics and photonics:** Typical Telic products / services: Metal and ITO-coated optics substrates, patterned thin films **Holography:** Typical Telic products / services: Holographic resist blanks **Flat-panel display, MCM and PCB tooling:** Typical Telic products / services: Large-format photomask blanks on soda-lime and borosilicate glass **Life sciences and medical:** Typical Telic products / services: Gold-coated and other coated microscope slides **Defense, security and aerospace (through HEF Photonics):** Typical Telic products / services: Etched and metallized glass functions combined with group shaping and coating capabilities ### Independent characterization Telic is a micro-cap specialty coater. Its strategic value is in its capabilities more than its size: a working U.S. chrome-blank line, large-format resist coating, thin-glass double-sided polishing and five decades of process know-how in a small, long-tenured team. Market-research publishers routinely list Telic among photomask-blank producers next to Hoya, Shin-Etsu, AGC, S&S Tech and ULCOAT. In revenue terms, however, it is several orders of magnitude smaller, and it serves the trailing-edge, research and large-format end of the market rather than leading-edge quartz blanks for wafer fabs. Since the HEF acquisition, Telic's role has shifted. It is now the lithography and thin-metal node of a vertically integrated North American optical-components platform, as well as a stand-alone merchant supplier.

Fusion New Material is the world's largest supplier of photovoltaic (PV) conductive paste. By CIC data it had the highest PV-paste sales of any manufacturer worldwide in the first nine months of 2025, with a 27% share. Its silver-based front and rear pastes metallise TOPCon, PERC, HJT and back-contact (X-BC) solar cells. In 2025 the company shipped 1,867 tonnes and reported CNY 14.59 billion in revenue. Because pricing is "silver plus processing fee", revenue moves with the silver price and margins run thin, at single-digit gross margin. To diversify away from a PV business that was 99.44% of 2024 revenue, Fusion bought SK enpulse's DUV blank-mask business, now Lumina Mask. That business supplies ArF/KrF binary and phase-shift blank masks for 14–90 nm nodes and is qualified at SK hynix and at Taiwanese and Chinese mask shops. Fusion is building 40,000 pieces a year of blank-mask capacity in Shanghai, aimed at a Chinese market that depends almost entirely on Japanese imports. Its stated long-term goal is more than 50% share of China's blank-mask market. **What the company does.** Fusion develops, manufactures and sells electronic pastes and related functional materials. Its core business is conductive paste used to form the metal electrodes (fingers and busbars) of crystalline-silicon solar cells. The company describes itself as an R&D-driven advanced-materials company in China and a leading global provider of complete metallisation solutions for PV cells. Its capabilities span synthesis of inorganic and organic materials, formulation, process engineering, analysis and application development. In 2025 and 2026 the company added a second business, semiconductor materials: photomask blank substrates (Lumina Mask) and, at an incubation stage, electron-beam photoresist (Shanghai Juxinguang New Materials, established 28 February 2026). **Business model and revenue model.** The business is almost entirely product sales. PV paste is quoted at the silver price plus a processing fee. Silver makes up more than 99% of direct material cost, according to the 2022 cost structure cited by brokers. Movements in the silver price therefore pass through to revenue but not to gross profit per kilogram. The processing fee, which depends on product generation, overseas mix and technology route, drives profitability. Service, subscription and licensing revenue is not material. On the latest reported mix, PV conductive silver paste was 98.07% of main business revenue, other (supplementary) products 1.30%, and scrap and other sales 0.62%. In 2024, PV conductive paste was 99.44% of revenue. **Value-chain position.** In PV, Fusion sits between silver ingot and powder suppliers upstream and cell makers downstream. It has integrated backward into electronic-grade silver powder (1,000 t/yr at Jiangsu Delijv) and glass frit (300 t/yr). In semiconductors, Lumina Mask is a tier-2 materials supplier. It coats polished synthetic-quartz substrates with chromium or MoSi absorber and phase-shift films plus resist, and sells the resulting blank masks to captive mask shops at fabs (such as SK hynix) and to merchant photomask makers (such as Taiwan Mask Corporation and Chinese mask houses). Those customers write circuit patterns onto the blanks to make reticles. **Customer types and end-markets.** **Crystalline-silicon PV cells (TOPCon, PERC, HJT, BC):** Customer type: Integrated module makers and specialist cell makers in China and overseas (Southeast Asia, Middle East, India, Turkey, US supply chains); Named customers (as disclosed): Tongwei Solar, Risen Energy, Hengdian DMEGC, JA Solar, Jolywood, Runergy, Canadian Solar, Jinzhai Jiayue, Yingfa Ruineng (IPO-era list) **Semiconductor lithography (DUV ArF/KrF):** Customer type: Captive mask shops at memory and logic fabs; merchant photomask makers; Named customers (as disclosed): SK hynix, Taiwan Mask Corporation (TMC), DiSiWei (迪思微), Zhongwei Mask (中微掩模); Chinese fabs in vendor-code setup and qualification - **Electronics (5G filters, semiconductor packaging pastes, MLCC pastes, 0BB module adhesives)** — Customer type: Component and module makers; Named customers (as disclosed): Not individually disclosed **Independent characterisation.** Fusion is in substance a high-turnover, working-capital-heavy materials converter. Its competitive edge is formulation speed when cell architectures change (PERC to TOPCon/LECO to BC/HJT), procurement scale in silver, and balance-sheet strength for financing customers' receivables. That last point matters more when silver prices rise, because each tonne of paste ties up more capital. The Lumina Mask acquisition is a deliberate move into a higher-margin, qualification-gated market. The comparison point is S&S Tech, the Korean blank-mask peer, which reported a 34.6% gross margin and a 20.7% operating margin in 2025. For 2026–2027, however, semiconductor revenue will be immaterial to group results, and group earnings will remain a function of PV paste volumes, processing fees and silver-price accounting effects.

ULVAC Coating Corporation is one of a handful of companies in the world that make photomask blanks, the coated quartz or glass plates that photomask makers pattern to produce the masks used in semiconductor and flat-panel-display lithography. The company began in 1970 when its parent developed the world's first chromium-film "hard" mask blank. Today it makes the whole product in-house, from polishing the raw glass and quartz through thin-film sputtering to resist coating, at plants in Japan, Taiwan and China. It says it pioneered low-reflection chrome blanks. It is a mid-tier supplier of semiconductor blanks, mostly binary chrome and MoSi phase-shift blanks for mature and mainstream nodes, and a leader in very large blanks for LCD and OLED displays, with sizes up to 2,100 × 2,600 mm. The ULCOAT group had simple-aggregate sales of JPY 15.45 billion and operating profit of JPY 2.23 billion in FY2026. In December 2026 it is moving from ULVAC, a vacuum-equipment maker, to Inabata, a chemicals and electronics trading house. The move turns it from a non-core subsidiary of an equipment company into the main manufacturing asset in a trader's semiconductor-materials strategy. --- **What the company does.** ULCOAT designs, makes and sells mask blanks, the starting substrate for photomasks. A mask blank is a highly flat, defect-free quartz (or, for some display applications, soda-lime or other glass) plate. One or more sputtered thin films are deposited on it: a light-shielding chromium layer, an anti-reflective chromium oxide/nitride layer, or a molybdenum-silicide (MoSi) phase-shifting layer. A photoresist coat is usually added on top. Photomask manufacturers buy the blanks, write circuit or pixel patterns into them with electron-beam or laser writers, and etch the patterns. The finished masks go to wafer fabs and display-panel fabs for lithography. The company presents its business in three product families in its group listing: mask blanks for semiconductors, mask blanks for flat-panel displays (FPDs), and MEMS glass. Its own website describes it as the pioneer of low-reflection mask blanks, with chrome-film and MoSi-film products used by semiconductor makers worldwide, and large-format blanks for LCD, OLED and smartphone displays. ULVAC's group directory describes ULCOAT as a company that "manufactures, processes, and sells mask blanks for flat panel displays and semiconductors, and MEMS Glass." The October 2026 transaction notices add quartz-substrate processing to that list. **Business model.** ULCOAT is a make-to-specification manufacturer of consumable materials. Revenue comes almost entirely from product sales. There is no material service, subscription or licensing revenue. Polishing and blasting work at FST is mostly captive, though FST also blasts sputtering-equipment parts for other customers. Demand follows two things: the number of new mask sets that photomask shops make, which depends on design starts and node migrations in semiconductors and on new panel models and fab ramps in displays; and replacement cycles for masks that wear out or get contaminated. This gives the business a recurring, consumables-like quality. It is less cyclical than the equipment businesses ULVAC is keeping. **Revenue-model mix.** **Product sales (mask blanks, MEMS glass, black-matrix blanks):** Share of revenue: Substantially all; Comment: Priced per plate, by size, film stack, defect grade and flatness grade **Processing services (substrate polishing, part blasting):** Share of revenue: Minor; Comment: Mostly done inside the group (FST to ULCOAT); some third-party blasting **Licensing / subscription:** Share of revenue: None disclosed; Comment: — **Value-chain position.** ULCOAT sits between the suppliers of synthetic quartz and specialty glass upstream and the photomask makers downstream (captive mask shops at large chipmakers and display makers, plus merchant mask makers). Its distinguishing feature is vertical integration inside the blank-making step. Transaction disclosures describe it as one of only a few companies worldwide able to run the whole process, from glass processing to finished mask blank. In-house steps include precision polishing (FST), cleaning, sputter deposition on ULVAC-designed vacuum tools, and resist coating. **Customer types and end markets.** **Merchant and captive semiconductor photomask makers:** End market: Logic, memory, power, analog and MEMS chips at mature and mainstream nodes; Products: 6-inch (6025) chrome binary blanks, MoSi attenuated phase-shift blanks (KrF, ArF), 9-inch blanks for proximity and stepper lithography **FPD photomask makers in Japan, Taiwan, China and Korea:** End market: LCD and OLED panels for TVs, monitors, IT and smartphones; Products: Large-format chrome blanks and phase-shift blanks up to 2,100 × 2,600 mm; black-matrix blanks (Taiwan) **MEMS and electronic-component makers:** End market: Sensors, optical and micro-devices; Products: MEMS glass **Independent characterisation.** ULCOAT is a niche, cash-generative materials company. Its strongest franchise is large display blanks, where it has said it holds roughly half or more of the world market. It is a smaller challenger in semiconductor blanks, where Japanese incumbents with their own quartz and film know-how dominate the leading edge. The company has said its semiconductor sales lean toward general-purpose blanks and that its share of the high-end market is low. Profitability has improved a lot. Group operating margin on a simple-aggregate basis rose from 4.5% in FY2024 to 14.4% in FY2026. The causes were high-resolution OLED-display demand and a quality-improvement programme for semiconductor blanks. ULVAC decided that continued growth would need capital spending it would rather direct to its core semiconductor-equipment business, so the company is now passing to a long-time minority partner.

S&S Tech is Korea's only domestic maker of photomask blanks. These are the quartz plates, coated with thin films, that are patterned to become the photomasks used in semiconductor and flat-panel-display lithography. Founded in Daegu in 2001 to break Japan's near-monopoly in the material, the company grew from first sales in 2002 to KRW 243.7 billion of consolidated revenue in FY2025. About 70% of revenue now comes from exports, mainly to Chinese photomask makers serving display and mature-node semiconductor fabs. Its core franchise is binary and phase-shift blanks for DUV (i-line, KrF, ArF) semiconductor lithography and large-area blanks for LCD/OLED. Since 2017 it has invested heavily to enter extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) materials, specifically EUV mask blanks and EUV pellicles, culminating in a roughly KRW 100 billion dedicated EUV Center in Yongin. Samsung Electronics, which owns about 8% of the company, has been qualifying S&S Tech's EUV blanks to diversify away from Japan's HOYA and AGC. The investment case rests on the timing of that qualification. **What the company does.** S&S Tech manufactures and sells blank masks, also called mask blanks: ultra-flat synthetic quartz substrates coated with light-shielding chromium-based films, phase-shift films (for example MoSi-based attenuated PSM) and resist. Photomask makers buy these blanks and write circuit patterns onto them with e-beam or laser writers. The finished photomask (reticle) is then used in steppers and scanners to print patterns onto wafers or display glass. A blank does not carry a circuit pattern. Its value lies in flatness, film uniformity, optical-density control and, above all, defect density. **The company's own description.** In its 2026 investor materials, S&S Tech presents itself as a "global leader in mask blank and EUV nano-technology." Its business statement covers mask blanks for semiconductors and flat-panel displays. It describes mask blanks as the main raw material for photomasks and reticles across memory and non-memory semiconductors and TFT-LCD, OLED and LED displays. Its regulatory business description adds two smaller lines run through subsidiaries: new-technology venture finance and bio/scientific-technology services. It frames these as ways to secure new growth engines. It also positions the core business for AI-driven high-performance semiconductor demand. **Business and revenue model.** Revenue is almost entirely product sales. In 9M FY2025 the blank mask segment generated about 97% of consolidated revenue, and the remainder came from venture-capital management income and laboratory services. There is no meaningful subscription, licensing or service revenue. Pricing is per plate and depends on substrate size (6-inch semiconductor blanks versus Gen-8-class display blanks), film stack complexity, and grade (defect specification). Hankyung reported in July 2026 that a DUV semiconductor blank sells for roughly KRW 3–4 million and an EUV blank for KRW 80–100 million. **Value-chain position.** S&S Tech sits upstream of photomask makers. Quartz substrates come from glass suppliers, deposition and inspection tools from equipment vendors (Veeco ion-beam deposition and Lasertec actinic and optical inspection for EUV), and sputtering targets and chemicals from materials vendors. Its blanks go to photomask shops: captive mask shops at chipmakers such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, merchant mask makers, and Chinese domestic photomask producers. Those masks then serve memory, foundry/logic and display-panel fabs. In EUV, the company is also moving one step further downstream with pellicles, the membranes that shield a finished reticle from particles in the scanner. **Customer types.** Customers are photomask manufacturers and chipmakers' captive mask operations. The company counts 30+ customers worldwide. Publicly named relationships include Samsung Electronics and SK hynix (DUV blanks) and LG Display (display blanks). Since 2024 Chinese photomask makers have been the largest growth source, serving mature-node foundries, fabless start-ups and OLED panel makers. **End markets.** (1) Display: LCD and especially OLED panels. Display blanks made up an estimated 60–70% of revenue in 2022–2024, according to SK Securities and company commentary. S&S Tech is regarded as the global number one in display blanks. (2) Semiconductor: memory and logic DUV lithography, where it ranks about third worldwide behind the Japanese incumbents. (3) EUV logic and memory: a pre-revenue end-market in qualification at Samsung Electronics. **Independent characterisation.** S&S Tech is a niche, high-margin materials franchise with three revenue drivers: (a) China-driven display and mature-node photomask demand, which has driven growth since 2023; (b) mix upgrading to higher-end ArF/PSM and OLED blanks, which lifted operating margin from 12.8% in FY2021 to 20.7% in FY2025; and (c) a binary EUV option whose value depends on one anchor customer, Samsung. The base business is profitable and cash-generative. The EUV business is capital-intensive, still produces no revenue and depreciates ahead of sales.

Compugraphics is one of Europe's oldest independent merchant photomask makers and the only photomask manufacturer of scale headquartered in Scotland. Since 1967 it has produced the quartz, borosilicate and soda-lime masks and reticles that carry device patterns onto wafers in lithography. It does not compete at the leading-edge logic and memory nodes where Photronics, Toppan, DNP and captive fab mask shops dominate. Instead it serves the long tail of specialty microelectronics: MEMS, photonics and optoelectronics, sensors, power and compound semiconductors, biomedical and genomics devices, wafer-level packaging, metrology-tool makers, universities and R&D institutes. Its edge comes from responsiveness, short cycle times, design-data support and unusual formats. These include large-area masks up to 16 inches and 450 mm × 450 mm plates from Jena. Since 2015 it has been part of Element Solutions' electronics platform and has reported within the Semiconductor Solutions business, which grew to USD 351.3 million in FY2025. **What the company does.** Compugraphics designs, writes, inspects and finishes photomasks and reticles to each customer's design. A photomask is a fused-silica (quartz) or glass substrate coated with an opaque film, typically chrome. The device designer's pattern is reproduced in that film to tight tolerances for critical dimension (CD), pattern placement (registration) and defects. Customers send layout data. Compugraphics prepares the data, exposes it on laser or electron-beam pattern generators, develops and etches the pattern, inspects and measures it, then cleans and pellicles the finished mask in Class 1 cleanroom conditions before shipping it to the fab. **The company's own description.** On its own website and on parent pages, Compugraphics describes itself as a supplier of high-quality photomask and reticle solutions to customers worldwide. It says its reputation rests on technical and service excellence, responsiveness and over 50 years of meeting customer requirements. It also says it adds value by offering a wide range of mask solutions that give customers manufacturing flexibility and help them meet tight cycle times. Element Solutions' FY2023 Form 10-K lists "photomask technologies" alongside copper interconnects, die-attach, sintered silver, adhesives and wafer-bump processes in its Semiconductor Solutions offering for chip fabrication and packaging. **Independent characterisation.** Compugraphics is a niche, high-mix, low-volume merchant mask shop. The economics are custom manufacturing: each order is a unique, non-repeatable part built to a customer design, priced per mask by format, technology level, writer time, inspection grade and turnaround. Value comes less from pushing resolution than from three things. The first is breadth of formats and substrates (2-inch copies up to 16-inch, 9 mm thick plates). The second is engineering support at the data-preparation stage, which matters to start-ups, universities and MEMS and photonics designers whose geometries (curves, non-Manhattan shapes) are awkward on writers built for integrated circuits. The third is reliable delivery. The business is capital-intensive relative to its revenue because pattern generators, inspection and metrology tools have long lives and high fixed cost. Revenue is recurring at the customer level: a customer's mask set is archived and reordered as masks wear, get damaged or as designs are revised. **Revenue model.** - **Custom photomasks and reticles (1X masters, step-and-repeat reticles, copy masks, large-area masks)** — Nature: Product, made to order; Mix: Core; the largest share **Direct-write wafer patterning:** Nature: Product/service hybrid; Mix: Smaller, prototyping-led - **Mask services: cleaning, pellicle replacement, repair and recertification, MPT protective coating** — Nature: Service; Mix: Complementary, recurring **Data preparation, archiving and mask storage:** Nature: Service; Mix: Low-value but sticky **Licensing / subscription:** Nature: None; Mix: — The product/service split is not publicly disclosed. **Value-chain position.** Compugraphics sits between mask-blank suppliers upstream (mostly Japanese makers of quartz and soda-lime blanks, plus pellicle and chrome-film suppliers) and wafer fabs, MEMS foundries, photonics fabs and packaging houses downstream. It is a merchant shop: it sells to independent device makers, unlike the captive mask shops that leading-edge foundries and IDMs run in-house. **Customer types.** Integrated device manufacturers and specialty foundries; MEMS and sensor makers; optoelectronics and photonics companies; biomedical, microfluidics and genomics device developers; makers of metrology and lithography tools that need calibration and test artefacts; universities, research institutes and start-ups. Historical supplier awards came from Freescale Semiconductor (twice), NXP, Analog Devices, Atmel and Intel. **End-markets.** Semiconductor and integrated circuits (mature and specialty nodes), optoelectronics and photonics, MEMS, microfluidics, sensors, genomics, biomedical, wafer-level packaging, aerospace and defence electronics, optical metrology.

Longtu Photomask is one of a small number of independent (non-captive) semiconductor photomask makers in mainland China. It designs and writes quartz and soda-lime masks, the patterned "master plates" that transfer circuit images onto wafers during lithography. Its Shenzhen plant is a high-utilisation, mass-production base for 130nm-and-above masks used in power devices, MEMS sensors, analog and signal-chain ICs, power-management ICs and IC packaging. Since the August 2024 IPO, the company has been moving up the node curve through its wholly owned Zhuhai subsidiary. Zhuhai phase I mass-produces 90nm masks, including KrF phase-shift masks (PSM), and is sampling 65/55nm products. Phase II, a CNY 1.95bn line for 40nm–28nm masks, is funded by a CNY 1.46bn private placement that the CSRC registered in August 2026. The investment case rests on domestic substitution in a market dominated by Toppan/Tekscend, Photronics and DNP. The near-term financial picture is a margin reset: price competition at mature nodes and Zhuhai ramp-up losses cut nine-month 2026 net profit by 63.7% even as revenue grew 14.8%. **What the company does.** Longtu's sole business is the research, development, production and sale of semiconductor photomasks. A photomask carries a chip layer's circuit pattern. That pattern is exposed through a lithography tool onto photoresist on a wafer, so the mask is a consumable "template" that sets the dimensional accuracy, overlay and defect profile of every wafer printed from it. Each chip design needs a full mask set, roughly 30 layers at 130nm and many more at advanced nodes. Every new design (tape-out) and every engineering change therefore generates new mask demand. **Company's own description (2025 annual report).** Management describes Longtu as a scarce independent third-party semiconductor mask maker in China. It follows the domestic semiconductor roadmap, iterates its technology and products continuously, and has raised the wafer-node capability of its mass-produced masks to 90nm, with higher nodes in sampling and under construction. Its masks serve mature-node signal-chain and power-management ICs and specialty processes such as power devices, MEMS sensors and advanced packaging. The report also stresses that mask making is know-how intensive: engineers must combine process, equipment, software and technical expertise. **Business and revenue model.** The model is 100% product revenue. Each mask is custom-made to a customer's design data and sold directly. The company does not sell subscriptions, services or licences. A small amount of revenue comes through sales agents who help develop and maintain customers in Taiwan, China. Pricing is per mask, depending on substrate (quartz or soda-lime), size, node, mask type (binary or phase-shift) and specification grade. In H1 2026 the average quartz mask sold for CNY 4,130 and the average soda-lime mask for CNY 1,345 (2026 private-placement prospectus). **Value-chain position.** Longtu sits upstream of wafer fabs and packaging houses and downstream of substrate and equipment suppliers: **Raw materials:** Participants: Quartz blanks, soda-lime blanks, optical/chrome films, pellicles, photoresist; Longtu's exposure: Quartz substrates and optical films are mainly imported from Japan and Taiwan. The top five suppliers took 61.07% of 2025 raw-material purchases **Capital equipment:** Participants: Laser and electron-beam mask writers, dry etch, inspection (AOI), repair, metrology; Longtu's exposure: Mask writers come from overseas vendors such as Mycronic (Sweden), Heidelberg Instruments (Germany) and JEOL (Japan) (IPO prospectus) **Mask making:** Participants: Captive fab mask shops; independent mask makers; Longtu's exposure: Longtu is an independent third-party supplier **Users:** Participants: Wafer foundries and IDMs, MEMS makers, packaging/bumping houses, fabless designers, universities; Longtu's exposure: About 20 12-inch fabs, more than 50 8-inch fabs, fabless designers and research institutes **Customer types and named customers.** Core customers named in filings include Hua Hong Grace (华虹宏力), SMIC-affiliated United Nova/芯联集成, Silan Microelectronics (士兰微), Hangzhou Lion Micro (立昂微), Yandong Micro (燕东微), Nuvoton (新唐科技), BYD Semiconductor, CanSemi (粤芯半导体), Huatian Technology (华天科技), Changfei Advanced (长飞先进), Yangjie Technology (扬杰科技) and Innoscience (英诺赛科). The IPO prospectus also listed GTA Semiconductor (积塔半导体), Injoinic (英集芯), Chipown (芯朋微), StarPower (斯达半导体), Tsinghua University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In H1 2026 the Zhuhai plant passed qualification audits at Hua Hong Grace, GTA Semiconductor, CanSemi, Sanan Optoelectronics and Zhuzhou CRRC, and some of these customers have moved to small-batch orders. **End-markets.** Power semiconductors (IGBT, MOSFET, SiC/GaN devices) are the largest application. They grew from 21.22% of revenue in 2020 to 57.95% in 2022, according to the IPO prospectus. The other end-markets are MEMS sensors, IC packaging (bumping, RDL, TSV), analog, signal-chain and power-management ICs, and MCUs. Final demand comes from new-energy vehicles, photovoltaics, industrial control, wireless communications, IoT and consumer electronics. **Independent characterisation.** Longtu is a focused, sub-scale specialist. Revenue was CNY 247M in 2025 against USD 849M at Photronics. It built a high-margin franchise, with gross margins near 60% before 2024, by substituting imports for mature-node power and MEMS masks, a niche the global majors treat as secondary. That niche is now crowded. Management describes the 130nm-and-above segment as being in the late stage of domestic substitution, and Longtu has had to cut prices to protect share. Its strategic answer is to climb to 90nm, 65/55nm and eventually 40–28nm, where Chinese supply is thin. That requires large capital outlays, roughly CNY 1.95bn for one line, set against a 2025 equity base of CNY 1.21bn, and long qualification cycles of 12–18 months per node per customer. In effect the company is in transition from a cash-generative niche player to a capital-intensive challenger.

Newway is one of the two leading Chinese independent (merchant) photomask makers. It has a rare position in large, high-generation flat-panel-display (FPD) photomasks. In 2019 it opened China's first G11 photomask line, and it is the only mainland supplier, and the fourth worldwide, able to make G11 masks. In 2024 it held 25.52% of global G11 photomask revenue, second in the world. Across all FPD photomasks it ranked sixth globally (about 9% share) and second in China in 2024. Its strategy, "以屏带芯" ("use displays to lead into chips"), uses scale and cash flow from display masks to fund semiconductor photomasks. In semiconductors it serves advanced packaging (CoWoS-type, FOPLP), power devices, MEMS and specialty-process IC fabs. Through its Suzhou-based subsidiary Jiangsu Luxin Semiconductor, it now supplies 90nm-and-above full mask sets and 40nm and 28nm single-layer masks, and plans a 28–14nm phase 2. Revenue rose from RMB 494 million in FY2021 to RMB 1,155 million in FY2025. Net profit attributable to shareholders reached RMB 252 million in FY2025. **What the company does.** Newway designs, makes and sells photomasks, also called masks or reticles. A photomask is a patterned master plate, usually quartz or soda-lime glass coated with chrome or phase-shift films. Lithography uses it to transfer circuit or pixel patterns onto glass substrates, wafers, package substrates or circuit boards. The mask is a high-value consumable for each design. Each new panel model, chip design or process revision needs a new mask set. Masks are also replaced periodically because of wear, contamination and design iteration. The company's FY2024 annual report describes its earnings model as supplying customised mask products to flat-panel and semiconductor customers. **Company's own description (FY2025 annual report).** The company calls itself a pioneer of China's mask industry and a leading domestic professional third-party mask maker. Anchored on its "display-leads-chip" strategy, it supplies display makers, wafer fabs, IC design houses, packaging and test houses, and equipment makers. It describes itself as the leading domestic supplier of high-generation, high-precision FPD masks and advanced-packaging masks. It also says its semiconductor process roadmap leads in China, extending to 14nm in planning. In FPD it claims to be the only domestic maker able to mass-produce masks for every generation from G2.5 to G11. Its coverage spans a-Si TFT-LCD, LTPS, LTPO, AMOLED, Mini/Micro-LED and silicon-based OLED. **Independent characterisation.** Newway is a capacity-led, capital-intensive specialty materials manufacturer. It sells almost entirely into China: overseas revenue was 0.13% of H1 2025 revenue. Its revenue is concentrated in a few large panel makers. The top five customers took 77.49% of FY2025 revenue, and the largest single customer took 47.16%. The largest panel maker in China is widely understood to be that customer. Unit economics depend on line utilisation, product mix and depreciation. Mix is moving from TFT-LCD binary masks to AMOLED, LTPO, halftone, PSM and Micro-LED masks, and into semiconductor IC-manufacturing and advanced-packaging masks. The company is exposed to two cycles at once. The display-panel capex and model-launch cycle sets the pace of FPD mask orders. China's push to localise mature-node and specialty semiconductors drives the semiconductor mask business. **Revenue model.** The company sells products only. Revenue comes from custom photomasks priced per piece or per set. Price depends on substrate size and generation, critical dimension and accuracy, number of layers, and mask type (binary, halftone/HTM, PSM). There are no subscription or licensing revenues of note. Processing and repair income is minor. **Value-chain position.** The company buys quartz and soda-lime blanks, photoresist and optical films, mostly from Japanese and Korean suppliers. The five largest suppliers took 88.85% of FY2025 raw-material purchases. Since 2018 Newway has coated photoresist onto blanks itself, which brings part of the blank value chain in-house. It writes patterns using laser and electron-beam lithography systems, also largely imported. Downstream it supplies panel fabs (TFT array and colour filter), OLED evaporation-related FMM makers, wafer fabs, OSAT/advanced-packaging houses, LED-chip and PSS makers, touch-panel and PCB makers. **Customer types and end-markets.** **TFT-LCD / AMOLED / LTPO panels:** Representative customers named in company and broker disclosures: BOE, TCL CSOT, Tianma Microelectronics, Truly, Visionox (G8.6 AMOLED pipeline), CEC Panda (historic), Laibao Hi-Tech; Mask types: G2.5–G11 binary, halftone (HTM), PSM, CF masks **Micro-LED / micro-display:** Representative customers named in company and broker disclosures: JBD (上海显耀), others; Mask types: High-precision small-format masks **FMM / OLED materials:** Representative customers named in company and broker disclosures: 寰采星 (Huancaixing); Mask types: Large-format masks for fine-metal-mask production **Advanced packaging / OSAT:** Representative customers named in company and broker disclosures: Huatian Technology, Tongfu Microelectronics, WLCSP specialist China Wafer Level CSP (晶方科技); Mask types: RDL, TSV, micro-bump and substrate masks; CoWoS/CoWoP/CoPoS/FOPLP-type **Wafer fabs and devices:** Representative customers named in company and broker disclosures: Ningbo SMIC-affiliated foundry (宁波中芯集成), Sanan Optoelectronics, Silan Microelectronics, Accelink (光迅科技), Yuanjie Semiconductor; Mask types: IC manufacturing and device masks (MOSFET, IGBT, MEMS, SAW, optoelectronics) **Touch / cover glass, PCB:** Representative customers named in company and broker disclosures: Lens Technology, PCB makers; Mask types: Touch masks, circuit-board phototools

Tosoh Quartz Corporation was founded in 1936 and was the first company to industrialize quartz glass in Japan. It is the fabrication hub of a vertically integrated quartz franchise inside Tosoh Corporation, Japan's large chlor-alkali and specialty-materials group. Sister company Tosoh SGM melts high-purity fused and synthetic silica ingots and tubes at Tosoh's Nanyo complex. Tosoh Quartz and its Taiwanese and Korean subsidiaries machine, flame-work and polish that material into chamber parts, furnace ware, rings, windows and large photomask substrates. Customers are semiconductor equipment makers, chip fabs and LCD/OLED panel makers. The company runs three plants in Yamagata Prefecture, plants in Tainan (Taiwan) and Ochang (Korea), and sales offices close to the TSMC, Samsung and SK hynix clusters. A Tosoh official in 2019 put the group's share of the roughly ¥200 billion global quartz-processing market at 20–30%. The franchise's competitive edge rests on two things: control of materials from melt to finished part, and qualification on leading-edge plasma-etch tools. Its main exposure is the memory and logic capex cycle. --- **What the company does.** Tosoh Quartz Corporation makes and sells fabricated quartz glass (fused silica) products. It describes itself as a pioneer in making and processing quartz glass. Its products range from tiny precision parts to large LCD/OLED photomask substrates and semiconductor manufacturing components, in sizes from a few millimetres to several metres (company website, 2026). Its registered business purpose is the processing and sale of quartz glass products for semiconductor manufacturing equipment, LCD/OLED mask substrates, and medical and optical uses. **Company's own characterization.** Tosoh Quartz says it has supplied high-precision quartz products since 1936. Applications have broadened from semiconductor equipment and optical, LCD and OLED panel manufacturing to medical diagnostic instruments and aerospace. The company stresses that its group includes a subsidiary that makes quartz glass from raw material. That lets it run research and development all the way from the material itself to the processing technology, which it calls a major strength (Hello Work company profile, April 2025; Yamagata Labour Bureau employer listing, July 2025). **Independent characterization.** Tosoh Quartz is a mid-sized precision fabricator whose economics are driven by semiconductor wafer-fab equipment spending. It sits at the "consumables and critical spares" tier of the fab supply chain. Quartz parts in etch, deposition and diffusion chambers erode or devitrify, so fabs replace them on a regular cycle. That gives the company a recurring aftermarket stream on top of first-fit sales to equipment makers. Its biggest structural difference from independent fabricators is upstream integration. Its sister company Tosoh SGM makes the N, NP, OP and S grade silica materials. Those materials are used across the industry, so the Tosoh Quartz group is both supplier and competitor to other fabricators. **Business model and revenue mix.** All disclosed revenue comes from product sales. Service, subscription or licensing revenue is not publicly disclosed. Sales go through Tosoh Quartz's own sales divisions (Tokyo, Tohoku and Hokuriku offices in Japan; Hsinchu and Seoul overseas). Tosoh Corporation also handles some sales on consignment, and Tosoh's Quartz Division markets silica glass materials globally (Tosoh Corporation Annual Securities Report FY2026; British Glass knowledge base). **Value-chain position.** **Raw silica and synthetic powders:** Tosoh entity: Tosoh Corporation (Nanyo complex); Role: Utilities, infrastructure, synthetic silica chemistry **Melting / ingot and tube making:** Tosoh entity: Tosoh SGM Corporation (Shunan, Yamaguchi; ¥1.6 billion capital; 100% group-owned, 50% indirectly); Role: Fused silica, optical quartz glass, quartz tubes **Fabrication — Japan:** Tosoh entity: Tosoh Quartz Corporation (Yamagata, Yonezawa, Sakata); Role: Semiconductor parts, LCD/OLED mask substrates, precision parts **Fabrication — Taiwan:** Tosoh entity: Tosoh Quartz Co., Ltd. (Tainan; NT$150 million capital); Role: Quartzware for the Taiwanese foundry ecosystem **Fabrication — Korea:** Tosoh entity: Tosoh Quartz Korea Co., Ltd. (Ochang, Cheongju; ₩3.5 billion capital); Role: Quartzware for Korean equipment makers and fabs **Fabrication — US/UK:** Tosoh entity: Tosoh Quartz, Inc. (Portland, Oregon; Durham, UK; US$4.27 million capital); Role: Quartzware for US/European OEMs and fabs **Customers:** Tosoh entity: —; Role: Equipment makers, device makers, photomask and panel makers, instrument makers **Customer types and end-markets.** **Semiconductor equipment and fabs:** Products: Etch rings, chamber liners, bell jars, diffusion and LPCVD furnace tubes, boats, flanges, windows; Main sites: Yamagata, Yonezawa, Tainan, Ochang **Flat-panel display (LCD/OLED):** Products: Large photomask substrates; Main sites: Yonezawa **Optics and analytical / medical:** Products: Optical cells (made since 1969), precision parts for diagnostic analyzers; Main sites: Sakata **Aerospace and other:** Products: Precision quartz parts; Main sites: Sakata In fiscal 2026 the semiconductor business softened while display recovered. Tosoh reported lower overseas shipments of quartz glass for semiconductor uses. Total quartz shipments still rose because the effects of an equipment accident affecting LCD-related production had been resolved (Tosoh Consolidated Financial Results FY2026, 12 May 2026).

Shin-Etsu Quartz Products is Japan's leading dedicated quartz glass manufacturer. It was founded in 1972 to bring together Heraeus's fused-quartz and optical-quartz technology and Shin-Etsu's silicon and synthesis chemistry. SQP melts, synthesises and forms natural and synthetic fused silica into ingots, tubes, rods, plates and crucibles. It sells to semiconductor equipment makers and fabs, silicon wafer producers, optical fibre preform makers, lithography optics houses and lamp makers. Its six Japanese plants are vertically integrated from raw material to finished part. Alongside them, SQP has a network of affiliates: Topco Quartz Products (Taiwan), Young Shin Quartz (Korea), Heraeus Shin-Etsu Quartz Singapore, Heraeus Shin-Etsu Quartz (China) and Admatechs (Japan). Together these give it direct reach into the TSMC, Samsung and Chinese fab ecosystems. Profitability is high for a materials company: FY2026 operating margin was 21.6% on JPY 33.9 billion of sales, and an equity ratio of about 86% leaves the balance sheet essentially unlevered. SQP therefore combines semiconductor-cycle exposure with the stability of a joint-venture structure backed by two of the world's largest quartz and silicon groups. The company's own slogan for this positioning is "Intelligent Quartz". The company profiled here is Shin-Etsu Quartz Products Co., Ltd. (信越石英株式会社, "SQP"). It is an unlisted Japanese specialist in quartz glass, based in Tokyo, with its website at www.sqp.co.jp. Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. and the German Heraeus group own it as a joint venture. SQP supplies high-purity quartz components and materials into the semiconductor fab supply chain: quartzware materials for diffusion, CVD and etch tools; crucibles for pulling Czochralski silicon crystals; and optical quartz for lithography exposure tools. **What the company does.** SQP makes high-purity quartz glass (amorphous silicon dioxide) and quartz glass products. It uses two families of material: **Natural fused quartz:** This is electrically or flame-fused from selected high-purity crystal and is used for semiconductor process ware, lamp tubing and economical optics. **Synthetic fused silica:** This is made by chemical vapour deposition from silicon precursors and is used for deep-UV lithography optics, inner layers of crucibles and optical fibre substrate and jacket tubes. The company describes its role as supplying quartz products to the semiconductor, liquid crystal and optical fibre industries that a highly sophisticated information society depends on. It names the following application fields: - optics - optical fibre - lamps - semiconductor manufacturing - LCD manufacturing - silicon single-crystal pulling - solar cell manufacturing - physical and chemical instruments - high-temperature processes **Business model.** SQP's revenue comes almost entirely from manufactured products, sold as semi-finished materials or finished components. It discloses no material service, subscription or licensing revenue. The model has three layers: 1. **Base materials.** Ingots, tubes, rods, plates and rings are sold to independent quartz fabricators. These fabricators machine and weld them into wafer boats, process tubes, bell jars, rings and domes for tool OEMs and fabs. Heraeus's Korean arm explicitly sells base materials from SQP, alongside those from Heraeus, to fabricators in Korea and worldwide. 2. **Engineered consumables.** SQC-series crucibles for silicon crystal pulling are consumed on each pulling run, so demand tracks silicon wafer output directly. 3. **Optical-grade blanks and fibre tubes.** SUPRASIL-P lithography blanks and SUPRASIL-F300 substrate and jacket tubes are sold to optics manufacturers and optical fibre preform producers. **Value chain position.** SQP is a Tier-2/Tier-3 materials supplier. Upstream, it buys high-purity quartz sand, silicon-based precursors for synthetic silica, industrial gases and large amounts of electricity. Downstream, it sells to: - quartz fabricators and affiliates (Topco Quartz Products, Young Shin Quartz) - semiconductor equipment OEMs - silicon wafer makers, which consume crucibles - lithography optics makers - fibre preform makers - lamp makers SQP's own recruiting materials name Sony and TSMC as customers. **Customer types and end markets.** - **Semiconductor front-end (diffusion, LPCVD, ALD, etch, wet clean)** — Products supplied: Natural and synthetic quartz tubes, rods, plates, rings, ingots; opaque (heat-insulating) quartz; quartz tank materials; lamp quartz for cleaning tools; Demand driver: Wafer starts, tool installs, process-kit replacement cycles, node transitions **Silicon wafer manufacturing:** Products supplied: SQC-series crucibles, 18" to 40"; Demand driver: Silicon wafer area shipments (300 mm especially) **Lithography and precision optics:** Products supplied: SUPRASIL-P series, INFRASIL 301/302, HOQ310; Demand driver: Lithography tool output for semiconductors, FPDs and PCBs; laser optics **Optical fibre:** Products supplied: SUPRASIL-F300 substrate tubes (MCVD/PCVD) and jacket/overclad tubes; Heraeus Fluosil preforms; Demand driver: Fibre deployment for data centres, AI clusters and telecoms **Lamps:** Products supplied: Quartz glass tubing for lamps (UV, excimer, halogen and cleaning-tool lamps); Demand driver: Industrial UV, semiconductor cleaning, specialty lighting **Display (LCD/OLED):** Products supplied: Quartz materials for LCD process tools; Demand driver: Panel capacity investment **Solar:** Products supplied: Quartz glass for solar cell manufacturing; crucibles; Demand driver: Photovoltaic wafer output **Characterisation.** SQP is best understood as Heraeus's quartz "twin" in Japan. It makes Heraeus-branded grades such as SUPRASIL and INFRASIL under licence, and it distributes Heraeus Fluosil preforms. Through its Shin-Etsu shareholding it is also closely tied to Japan's largest silicon wafer franchise (Shin-Etsu Handotai, which consumes crucibles) and to the synthetic quartz know-how of the wider Shin-Etsu group. The financial profile is that of a niche oligopolist: operating margins above 20% in every year from FY2023 to FY2026, very little leverage, and large retained earnings. These features point to pricing power in qualified, long-cycle consumables where switching costs are high. Cumulative fab-tool qualification and decades-long relationships with Japanese wafer and equipment makers are the core assets.

Heraeus Covantics is one of the world's oldest and most technically complete producers of high-purity quartz glass and synthetic fused silica, with a lineage that runs back to the first commercial melting of bubble-free quartz glass in Hanau in 1899. It covers every major route to high-purity silica: electric fusion and flame fusion of natural quartz, synthetic soot and vapour-deposition processes, and fluorine-doped and specialty grades. On these it builds semi-finished products (ingots, tubes, rods, plates, cylinders, preforms) and finished system components. Its customers are semiconductor equipment makers and fabs (diffusion, deposition, etch and lithography quartzware and optics), optical fiber producers (telecom preform cylinders and tubes, specialty fiber preforms, and now hollow core fiber), and laser, optics, fusion-research and space customers. Formed in 2025 by merging Heraeus Conamic and Heraeus Comvance, it sits in the Heraeus Group's Semiconductor & Electronics business area. Its edge comes from materials purity, process breadth and a long-standing joint-venture network with Shin-Etsu in Asia. Its current growth drivers are AI-driven data-center connectivity (it is co-developing and scaling hollow core fiber with Microsoft) and a localised China capacity build-out. --- **What the company does.** Heraeus Covantics makes and processes high-purity quartz glass, synthetic fused silica, and related high-end materials such as ceramics and composites. In its own words, it manufactures semi-finished products, complex system components and custom-tailored solutions made of quartz glass, fused silica and ceramic materials. These go into data transmission and telecommunications, specialty optical fibers for industrial and medical use, semiconductor manufacturing and optical applications. The Heraeus Group describes the business as a technology leader and leading-edge materials specialist for the industry's highest-purity fused silica. **Company's own description (Heraeus Group, 2025).** Heraeus describes the formation of Heraeus Covantics as a step to expand its technology leadership in making and processing high-purity quartz, fused silica, ceramics and composites. Management called it the creation of "a global powerhouse" that combines its capabilities and aligns them more closely with market requirements and customer needs. **Independent characterization.** Heraeus Covantics is a vertically integrated specialty-materials producer. It controls the melting and synthesis of high-purity silica and adds value by forming, machining, welding and finishing. Its revenue is almost entirely product revenue: engineered materials and components sold under specification-driven supply agreements, often qualified into a customer's tool or fiber-draw process for years. There is no meaningful subscription or software revenue. Licensing income is not publicly disclosed. A newer feature is the manufacturing partnership with Microsoft, in which Heraeus produces hollow core fiber using Microsoft's process intellectual property. That arrangement looks more like contract manufacturing and technology transfer than a catalogue-product sale. **Revenue model mix.** **Product sales — semi-finished materials:** Role in the business: Ingots, tubes, rods, plates, cylinders and preforms sold to quartz fabricators, optics makers and fiber drawers **Product sales — finished components:** Role in the business: Machined and welded quartzware and optical components for semiconductor equipment and fabs **Contract / partnership manufacturing:** Role in the business: Hollow core fiber production for Microsoft Azure at Heraeus sites in Europe and the USA (from 2025) **Services:** Role in the business: Application engineering and material co-development; no separately reported service revenue **Licensing:** Role in the business: Not publicly disclosed **Value-chain position.** Covantics sits at the materials layer, upstream of semiconductor equipment OEMs (diffusion and LPCVD/ALD furnaces, etch chambers, lithography optics), fab maintenance and spares channels, optical-fiber preform and draw operations, and laser and optics system integrators. In synthetic fused silica for telecom fiber it supplies the cladding tubes and cylinders (RIC® cylinders and tubes) that preform makers overclad onto their core rods. It is therefore a critical but largely invisible supplier to the global fiber cable industry. **Customer types.** Semiconductor equipment manufacturers and wafer fabs; quartzware fabricators; telecom optical-fiber producers; specialty fiber makers for industrial lasers, sensing and medical laser delivery; optics and laser OEMs; research institutions (nuclear fusion laser facilities, space missions such as ESA's LISA); and hyperscale cloud operators (Microsoft Azure). **End-markets served.** Semiconductors (front-end process consumables and optics), telecommunications and datacom fiber (including AI data-center interconnect), specialty and medical fiber, lasers and photonics, astronomy and space, energy research (fusion laser optics), UV and specialty lighting, and passive telecom components.

3D Glass Solutions is a US pure-play glass foundry. It turns its patented APEX® photosensitive glass-ceramic into three-dimensional microstructures, through-glass vias (TGVs), integrated passive devices and glass-core substrates for semiconductor packaging. When APEX is exposed to UV light, the patterned regions turn into ceramic. These regions are then etched away in dilute acid, leaving fracture-free vias and cavities in the surrounding glass. The company makes RF and millimetre-wave filters, couplers, antennas-in-package and substrate-integrated waveguides for defence, aerospace, 5G/6G and automotive radar customers. It is now repositioning around glass-core substrates and 3D heterogeneous integration (3DHI) for AI and high-performance computing. Its backers include Intel Capital, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Applied Ventures (Applied Materials), Corning, Nagase and Walden Catalyst. In 2025–26 the company moved from a small US foundry to an international manufacturing platform. It is building a ₹1,943.53 crore (about $230 million) advanced-packaging and glass-substrate plant in Odisha, India, with Indian central and state subsidies. It has also signed a tripartite MoU with Intel and the Government of Odisha for a proposed glass-core substrate complex of about $3.3 billion. --- **What the company does.** 3DGS designs and manufactures glass-based electronic packages, passive components and substrates. Its core is the APEX® glass-ceramic platform, a lithium-aluminosilicate photo-definable glass. Under UV exposure and thermal treatment the exposed regions crystallise into a ceramic phase, which etches much faster than the unexposed glass. This lets 3DGS form high-aspect-ratio through-glass vias, cavities, channels and suspended structures without the micro-cracks that laser drilling can cause. Metallisation, redistribution layers and embedded passives are then added to make finished devices or substrates. **Company self-description.** In its press materials, 3DGS calls itself "a world-class expert on the fabrication of electronic packages and devices using photo-definable glass-ceramics." It says it uses its product solutions to provide device manufacturing and systems integration services for standard and custom products, and that it gives customers complete glass-enabled systems integration services. Bloomberg's company description has three strands: foundry services for 3D heterogeneous integration, glass microstructural parts, and glass-based integrated passive devices. **Independent characterisation.** 3DGS is best understood as a specialty-materials foundry. It is now becoming a platform supplier of glass-core substrates and advanced-packaging (ATMP) services. It has three revenue engines at different stages of maturity: 1. **RF / microwave / mmWave components and integrated passive devices (IPDs).** These are the historical revenue core: bandpass filters, diplexers, couplers, baluns, air-filled and electromagnetic substrate-integrated waveguides (AF-SIW / eSIW), and antenna-in-package structures. Customers are mostly defence primes, aerospace, satellite communications and 5G infrastructure. Lockheed Martin's investment and the AS9100 certification point to defence demand. 2. **Glass foundry and 3DHI services.** Custom design-to-manufacture work using APEX and, under licence from Corning, HPFS® fused silica. Process design kits (PDKs) are published so customer designers can work to standard rules. 3DGS is a named partner in DARPA's Next-Generation Microelectronics Manufacturing (NGMM) programme, run through the Texas Institute for Electronics (TIE) at UT Austin. 3. **Glass-core substrates and advanced packages for HPC/AI.** This is the growth vector. Products include glass FCBGA substrates and packages, glass interposers with embedded passives and silicon bridges, and 3DHI modules. They are to be made at volume in Odisha on 510 mm × 515 mm panels. **Revenue model.** The product/service mix is not publicly disclosed. Based on disclosed activities, revenue comes from (a) product sales of standard and custom RF devices, (b) non-recurring engineering (NRE) and foundry services for custom designs, (c) government R&D and programme funding (DARPA NGMM; a small 2022 grant recorded by Dealroom), and (d) long-term supply contracts. Preqin describes the HPFS glass business as running on long-term contracts, with prices negotiated on complexity and volume. Licensing income is not disclosed. 3DGS is a licensee rather than a licensor in its main disclosed IP agreement, the Corning TGV licence. **Value-chain position.** 3DGS sits between glass and materials makers (Corning; its own APEX formulation) and chip designers, OSATs and system integrators. It overlaps with substrate makers (Ibiden, Unimicron, Absolics) and with OSAT-style assembly and test. Through the Odisha project it is integrating forward into assembly and packaging: the Indian plant is described as a vertically integrated "advanced packaging and embedded glass substrate ATMP facility." **Customer types.** Defence primes and government agencies; aerospace and space/satcom OEMs; RF front-end and telecom-infrastructure suppliers; automotive radar suppliers (HPFS substrates for 70–150 GHz); photonics and datacentre interconnect developers; HPC/AI chip and chiplet integrators; and academic and government labs using 3DHI foundry services. Named customers are not publicly disclosed. **End markets served.** Aerospace and defence (radar, electronic warfare, satcom); 5G/6G telecom; automotive radar; datacentres and AI/HPC; photonics; and medical and bio-sensors, plus quantum-dot sensors.