China’s drive to build a fully domestic semiconductor equipment industry has reached another milestone. Hwatsing Technology, the country’s leading producer of chemical mechanical planarization equipment, has developed and shipped what it describes as China’s first integrated metrology system for six-inch wafers. The breakthrough enables real-time quality measurement to be embedded directly into the polishing workflow, a capability that eliminates a critical bottleneck in chip manufacturing and reduces the risk of defects reaching downstream production stages.
According to a report by the South China Morning Post, the Tianjin-based company announced the development on Thursday, disclosing that the system has already been shipped to a leading domestic optical silicon materials producer. The new tool integrates ultra-precise measurement capabilities directly into the chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) process, allowing the equipment to take measurements both before and after polishing and feed that data back in real time to the control system. This closed-loop feedback enables the machine to make immediate adjustments to polishing pressure, speed, and chemical composition, ensuring that each wafer meets precise dimensional tolerances.
What CMP Metrology Means for Chip Manufacturing
Chemical mechanical planarization is one of the most critical and technically demanding steps in the semiconductor fabrication process. Wafers, thin, flat discs of semiconductor material that serve as the base for microchips, must be polished to an extraordinarily precise flatness before each layer of circuitry can be deposited. Even nanometer-scale variations in surface topology can cause catastrophic failures in the finished chip, making the accuracy of the polishing step directly determinative of overall yield rates.
Traditionally, metrology, the precise measurement of wafer surface characteristics, has been performed as a separate step, either before or after the polishing machine, using standalone measurement tools. This approach introduces delays, requires additional handling of fragile wafers, and creates a temporal gap between the measurement data and the polishing action. By integrating the measurement system directly into the CMP tool, Hwatsing has eliminated this gap, allowing the polishing process to respond instantaneously to deviations from the target specification.
(Related: Hwatsing Ships Its 1,000th CMP System, Marking a Milestone in China’s Chip Equipment Drive)
Strategic Importance for China’s Semiconductor Independence
The significance of Hwatsing’s metrology breakthrough extends well beyond the technical specifications of a single piece of equipment. China’s semiconductor equipment sector has historically been one of the most import-dependent segments of the country’s technology supply chain. Advanced CMP systems, and particularly the precision metrology tools that accompany them, have been dominated by American and Japanese suppliers. The ability to source these critical tools domestically reduces China’s vulnerability to export controls and ensures that its chip fabrication facilities can continue operating even if access to foreign equipment is restricted.
The six-inch wafer scale targeted by the new system is particularly relevant for the production of specialty semiconductors used in power electronics, photonics, and compound semiconductors, applications that are critical for electric vehicles, 5G infrastructure, and advanced military systems. As China’s domestic chip industry continues to mature, the availability of high-quality domestic CMP metrology tools will be essential for maintaining the yield rates and production consistency required to compete in global markets.
(Related: AMEC’s Profit Nearly Quadrupled in H1 as China’s Chip Tool Sector Booms)
Part of a Broader Equipment Ecosystem
Hwatsing’s latest announcement is part of a sustained, multi-year effort to build a comprehensive domestic semiconductor equipment ecosystem in China. The company reached the milestone of shipping its 1,000th CMP system earlier this year, demonstrating that its tools have achieved the production volume and reliability necessary to be adopted at scale by Chinese chip fabricators. The new integrated metrology system represents the next step in that progression, moving from basic equipment supply to the delivery of sophisticated, intelligent manufacturing systems capable of the closed-loop process control demanded by advanced chip production.
As China’s semiconductor ambitions continue to expand, from mature-node chips for automotive and industrial applications to increasingly advanced nodes for AI accelerators and mobile processors, the depth and sophistication of its domestic equipment base will be a critical determinant of how far and how fast that expansion can proceed. Hwatsing’s latest breakthrough suggests that the country’s equipment sector is advancing more rapidly than many outside observers have assumed.
Displacing Foreign Metrology Leaders
The global market for semiconductor metrology equipment is currently dominated by a small number of American and Japanese companies. KLA Corporation, a California-based firm, holds the largest share of the standalone wafer inspection and metrology market, with its systems deployed in virtually every advanced chip fabrication facility worldwide. Japanese companies, including Hitachi High-Tech and Lasertec, also hold significant positions in specific metrology segments. The ability to develop a domestically produced integrated CMP metrology system that can compete with these established players represents a meaningful advance in China’s campaign to reduce its dependence on foreign equipment suppliers.
For Chinese chip fabricators, the availability of a domestic integrated CMP metrology system reduces both cost and supply chain risk. Foreign metrology equipment is subject to the same export control regime as other advanced semiconductor tools, meaning that any escalation in US-China technology restrictions could disrupt access to the inspection systems required to maintain yield rates. By developing a domestic alternative, Hwatsing is providing Chinese chip manufacturers with a degree of supply chain insurance that becomes increasingly valuable as geopolitical tensions remain elevated. The shipment of the new system to a leading domestic optical silicon producer confirms that the technology has already passed the critical threshold of commercial readiness.