Tekscend Breaks Ground On New Mask Plant in Singapore
The mask supplier, formerly known as Toppan, also reported its results
By Mark LaPedus
Japan’s Tekscend Photomask, formerly known as Toppan Photomask, recently broke ground on a new photomask manufacturing facility in Singapore.
At the same time, Tekscend reported its first financial results since becoming a public company on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Tekscend is one of the world’s largest merchant suppliers of photomasks. The photomask industry is a key part of the semiconductor industry. The vast majority of the world’s chips are manufactured using a mask.
For years, Tekscend was known as Toppan Photomasks. And for years, Toppan Photomasks was a subsidiary of Japan’s Toppan Printing, a large diversified company.
Then, in 2022, Toppan Printing spun out its photomask unit and establish a new and independent company called Toppan Photomask. Last year, Toppan Photomask changed its name to Tekscend Photomask.
In fiscal year 2024, Tekscend generated sales of 117,974 million yen (US$751.7 million). At present, Tekscend has eight photomask manufacturing sites, which are located in the U.S., Europe, Japan and Asia.
The company recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new photomask manufacturing plant in Singapore. The new facility is located at 30 Tampines Industrial Avenue 3, a major industrial zone in eastern Singapore.
The floor space for the new plant is 8,849.53 million square meters. Tekscend will begin installing the equipment in the facility in 2026. Mass production is expected to start in 2027.
Mask landscape
Meanwhile, there are two types of photomask makers in the market—captive and merchant. The captive mask makers include Intel, Micron, Samsung, TSMC and other chipmakers.
These chipmakers produce photomasks within their own, internal mask-making facilities. The captives tend to make leading-edge masks. Captive mask makers primarily produce photomasks for their internal chip manufacturing processes.
In contrast, merchant mask vendors manufacture and sell photomasks to various customers. Merchant mask makers tend to produce advanced and trailing-edge photomasks. The merchant mask makers include Japan’s DNP, U.S.-based Photronics, Tekscend and others.
The overall photomask industry is a $5.561 billion business, according to SEMI. Of that amount, captive mask makers in total represent 63% of the overall photomask market, while merchant mask makers had 37% of the business, according to Tekscend.
In the past, the merchant mask market was growing at an annual rate of 7.4%, according to the company. From 2025 to 2030, the merchant mask market is expected to grow at an annual rate of 8.7%, they added.
Tekscend continues to see demand for both advanced and mature mask products. In addition, the company is also seeing strong demand from the foundry industry.
Generally, leading-edge foundry vendors produce chips based on both trailing- and bleeding-edge nodes. As stated, leading-edge foundries tend to focus their mask-making efforts on the most advanced photomasks. These vendors are apparently outsourcing more of their less advanced masks to the merchant photomask makers.
“We believe that the foundry expansion leads to the increasing demand for outsourcing. The captive players are concentrating their resources on the cutting-edge products. In middle and mature areas, the equipment faces end-of-life or end-of-services challenges. Rather than purchasing new equipment, in that case, there is a trend that they prefer outsourcing that portion of the business,” according to Teruo Ninomiya, president and CEO of Tekscend, and Seiichi Itoga, the company’s CFO, in a Q&A after the company’s recent earnings release.
“We have a significant number of equipment, including parts and can leverage these parts and extend the life of equipment. Therefore, we are able to supply legacy products at the lower price, which customers appreciate,” they said.
Tekscend’s products, numbers
Tekscend itself makes and sells several types of optical photomasks, including binary and phase-shift products. The company also provides templates for nanoimprint lithography.
For years, the company has been developing masks for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. Last year, it entered into a joint photomask R&D agreement with IBM related to the 2nm logic semiconductor node using EUV lithography. This agreement also includes high-NA EUV photomask development.
Recently, Tekscend posted its first results as a public entity. Consolidated revenue during the six months ended Sept. 30 reached 61,771 million yen (US$393.6 million), a year-on-year increase of 3.8%. Profit attributable to owners of the company was 12,350 million yen (US$78.69 million), a year-on-year increase of 41.5%.
The company is increasing its capital spending. “We are establishing a plant from scratch in Singapore, so that will require a major investment. In the area of EUV, we are installing quality assurance and inspection equipment to be prepared for the EUV mass production next year, while currently it is at the developing phase,” according to Tekscend’s Ninomiya and Itoga.
“In terms of the regional growth, we are enhancing the advance production line in South Korea and the United States and other countries where the semiconductor demand is increasing,” they added.