By Mark LaPedus
What’s the general outlook for the photomask industry?
Answer: The overall outlook is upbeat and bullish, according to new survey from the eBeam Initiative, an industry group.
For example, in the survey, 94% of industry luminaries believe that photomask revenues in 2026 will increase compared to 2025. In addition, a majority of luminaries predict that mask equipment purchases will increase over the next three years for multi-beam writers (93%), inspection (92%) and etching (68%), according to the survey.
“Photomask market growth looks extremely healthy over the next 15 years,” stated Aki Fujimura, chief executive of D2S, the managing company sponsor of the eBeam Initiative. “We’re already seeing double digit photomask growth in the AI era, according to SEMI, while International Business Strategies (IBS) forecasts chip design starts to grow at 14.4% CAGR from 2025 to 2030, fueling a second wave of growth for the photomask market.”
The eBeam Initiative provides a forum for educational and promotional activities regarding new semiconductor manufacturing approaches based on electron beam (eBeam) technologies.
At the recent SPIE Photomask Technology + EUV Lithography Conference, the eBeam Initiative presented the results of its 15th annual Luminaries survey. Industry luminaries representing more than 45 companies from across the semiconductor ecosystem participated in this year’s survey, which was conducted in July 2026.
More survey results: Bigger masks
Meanwhile, here is another key takeaway from the survey: The market needs to pay close attention to the development of a new mask size standard.
Photomasks, or masks, are an important part of the semiconductor industry. For decades, the semiconductor industry has mainly used photomasks, which measure 6- x 6-inches in size.
Now, ASML and TSMC are establishing an industry-wide collaborative initiative to drive the transition to 6- x 12-inch photomasks. Intel and Samsung are also pushing for the development of the new 6- x 12-inch mask size format.
The proposed 6 x 12-inch mask size format is mainly targeted for high numerical aperture (high NA) extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. “The motivation for large-format masks is to improve high NA (0.55 NA) EUV machine productivity (wafers per hour) by doubling the exposed field in one scan, thereby eliminating stitching and resulting in increased throughput for high-volume manufacturing (HVM),” according to the eBeam Initiative.
In a survey question from the eBeam Initiative, 66% of the luminaries who responded predict that the industry will adopt large-format masks (approximately 6 x 12-inch rectangular) within the next decade.
Here are more results from the survey:
*Adoption of actinic mask inspection for 0.33 NA EUV is expected to increase. Some 64% of luminaries predict that 61%-100% of 0.33 NA EUV HVM production masks will be inspected in the mask shop using actinic inspection three years from now—an increase from 43% in last year’s survey.
*In a question about the impact of high NA EUV on mask makers, 46% of luminaries now believe the minimum dimension needed for mask sub-resolution assist features (SRAFs) is 15nm or below.
*Turning to curvilinear masks, 87% of luminaries predict that most leading-edge mask shops will manufacture at least one layer with mostly curvilinear shapes within the next three years—an indication that curvilinear masks will be used beyond fixing hot spots.
Click here for the 2026 eBeam Initiative Luminaries survey results