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Bucking a slowdown in the semiconductor industry, the sales of photoresist chemicals continued to grow for the sixth year in a row, according to new figures released by Gartner. Key to the continued sales expansion is the migration to 193nm ArF lithography and the accompanying higher cost resists required for both dry and immersion technologies. According to Gartner, the photoresist market revenue showed 14.5 percent growth in 2007, reaching $1.2 billion in revenues. 193nm resists made up 28 percent of the market in 2007.

Although the positions of the Top 5 photoresist suppliers was unchanged, JSR and Shin-Etsu Chemical outgrew the others with sales increasing 33.7 percent and 24.8 percent respectively.

JSR also increased its market share to 27.8 percent in 2007, up from 23.8 percent in 2006. Gartner put this down to JSR’s focus on DUV resists for 193nm ArF applications. Shin-Etsu followed a similar path, seeing its share increase to 13.4 percent in 2007 compared to 12.3 percent in 2006.

On a regional basis, the Asia/Pacific region was the strongest market, with a 27.7 percent revenue increase. Japan saw growth of 13.9 percent and Europe 1.1 percent growth. North America was relatively flat with only a 0.6 percent increase over 2006.

Gartner said that Tokyo Ohka Kogyo and Rohm and Haas underperformed the market with 7.5 percent and 5.4 percent growth respectively, both losing market share.

Photoresist sales growth is expected to continue in 2008, marking the seventh year of growth in a row but at a slower pace of 6 percent, due to the overall semiconductor market softness. Continued adoption of 193nm technology, both dry and wet could lead to market position changes, according to Gartner.