Canon Utsunomiya Office to install new manufacturing facilities, strengthen manufacturing capacity for semiconductor lithography systems
TOKYO, October 6, 2022—Canon Inc. announced today that the company will install new manufacturing facilities at its Utsunomiya Office, which produces semiconductor lithography systems and other devices. The new facilities are scheduled to commence operation in the first half of 2025.
The Canon Group, under Phase VI of its “Excellent Global Corporation Plan” series of 5-year management plans, aims to “accelerate our corporate portfolio transformation by improving productivity and creating new businesses.” As part of these efforts, Canon is working to expand its semiconductor lithography system business, one of the company's primary strategic businesses.
The semiconductor market is expected to see continued growth amid the transition towards a “smart society” led by such advancements as the IoT and 5G. Canon is working to strengthen its position in the fields of products, business and support while aiming to increase its market share of semiconductor lithography systems. Going forward, Canon is responding to forecasted growth in demand in the mid-and long-term by strengthening its manufacturing capabilities through the installation of new facilities at the company's Utsunomiya Office.
Outline of new facilities
- Name: Canon Inc. Utsunomiya Optical Products Plant New Factory (provisional name)
- Address: 22-2 Kiyohara-Kogyodanchi, Utsunomiya, Tochigi
- Area: Approximately 70,000 m2
- Capital investment: Approximately ¥38 billion (construction cost)
- Construction start: 2nd half 2023
- Commencement of operation: 1st half 2025
- Scope of business: R&D, manufacture and services related to semiconductor lithography systems
Canon is a niche player with 3% market share (based on sales, or 30% in terms of # shipped) in 2020...But I agree - I hope they do well...It would not be good for Sensor and Camera R&D if Canon overall was loosing money.
It will be interesting to understand who are Canon's customers and what level of fabs they are selling their equipment into but it is clear that there is massive investment going on in EU/US/JP/CH for fabs on national security grounds and in particular to reduce some reliance on Taiwan/TMSC as drought and conflict are risks.
There is also pressure on AMSL to not sell leading edge equipment into China.
If you are interested in the current chip making industry then this video is useful and recent especially for the ASML/TMCS sections at the beginning.
Anyone know who makes the stacked/BSI sensor chips - is it just Canon and Sony?
I would assume that Canon does its own lithography for them so in that respect they would be a leader in that niche. I wonder if they sell the lithography machines to Sony :)
It seems that the only other stacked chips in production are memory chips