Chinese quartz approved for semiconductor equipment and DRAM manufacturing, but it still can't break America's monopoly — China secures domestic supply for chipmaking components, but Spruce Pine still holds the crucible monopoly
Pacific Quartz gets its high-purity quartz qualified for semiconductor equipment and DRAM manufacturing.
Jiangsu Pacific Quartz, a China-based high-purity quartz producer, is supplying HPQ material to key domestic and foreign chipmaking tool manufacturers, such as Lam Research and Tokyo Electron. Their products, used post-silicon wafer creation, have also obtained certification from a prominent Chinese DRAM manufacturer, potentially CXMT.
Analyst TP Huang believes the DRAM maker is CXMT. Pacific Quartz's achievements signify significant domestic supply for Chinese quartz, originating from their purified high-purity sand processed into furnace-tube material for DRAM fabs. However, their components are still utilized after the silicon wafer is produced. Crucibles for growing silicon wafers with 9N–11N purity, necessary for semiconductor manufacturing, can only be sourced from Sibelco, The Quartz Corp., or Russian Quartz LLC in Spruce Pine, North Carolina, and Russia, respectively.
Thus, while China secures domestic supply for chipmaking components, America's monopoly on quartz remains unbroken.
Written by urgent.news from Tom's Hardware's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
