Fab equipment component maker BC&C is developing new products its main focus rings for new revenue.
The company is developing ceramic test sockets and tantalum sputtering targets with the goal to launch prototypes sometime between 2023 and 2024, the company said.
Test sockets are used to test packaged chips to see if they are viable.
Most sockets that are used are made out of polymer resin, but ceramic insulates electricity better.
This means it is more usable for chips made with advanced processes that are more vulnerable to current leaks from their thinner circuits.
The company’s focus rings are also currently made with boron carbide of the same boron family as ceramic.
The sockets are aimed at use in testing for logic chips at 5-nanometer or smaller.
Meanwhile, the tantalum sputtering targets are used in the sputtering process, a kind of deposition process that collides high energy particles on to the surface.
South Korean chipmakers currently wholly rely on imported tantalum sputtering targets.
