On 28 March 2026, the achievement evaluation meeting for “Development of High-Performance Corrosion- and Wear-Resistant Ceramic Coating Materials and Their Application in Semiconductor Etching Equipment” was held in Hefei. Hosted by the China Surface Engineering Association and co-organised by Hefei Yingrui High-Tech New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. and Yangzhou University, the meeting brought together an authoritative evaluation committee to verify and assess the project results in a comprehensive and professional manner.
After rigorous multi-dimensional review and questioning, the committee unanimously concluded that the project's overall technology has reached an internationally advanced level, with its high-purity YOF powder preparation technology and the fluorine-containing plasma etch resistance of its atmospheric plasma sprayed coatings at the forefront of the industry. The technology effectively fills the gap in surface protection for semiconductor equipment and lays a key technical foundation for the localisation of domestic semiconductor equipment. (Note: the above conclusion comes from the expert review of the achievement evaluation meeting organised by the China Surface Engineering Association on 28 March 2026; the corresponding official evaluation report is available for reference.)
The evaluation followed industry-standard procedures and was conducted both online and offline. During the review, the expert committee listened to detailed technical reports, examined the full set of R&D, testing and industrialisation materials, and visited YR High-Tech's production base to inspect the complete semiconductor-grade ceramic powder preparation line, plasma spray coating processing, coating performance testing and R&D platforms. The committee completed a rigorous verification and comprehensive assessment across technological innovation, product performance metrics, industrialisation results and economic benefits.
Addressing the industry pain points of high-end semiconductor manufacturing equipment — where core components face severe corrosion, high wear and complex electro-thermal stress, making protection difficult and service life limited — YR High-Tech and Yangzhou University have pursued years of sustained technical research. They built a full-chain innovation system covering ‘new material design — new process development — overall solution delivery’, and successfully created a high-performance semiconductor ceramic coating technology system with fully independent intellectual property, achieving self-reliance in key technologies.
Three core technology innovations that break through conventional process limits
01 Innovative material system for better overall protection. The project developed a ‘composition–structure’ co-design approach for ceramic coating materials, breaking the performance ceiling of conventional alumina coatings. It independently developed dedicated materials including high-purity yttrium-based materials, Cr₂O₃-based composite wear-resistant materials and medium/high-entropy dielectric ceramics, forming a protection material system tailored to extreme semiconductor conditions and better matching the stringent requirements of semiconductor equipment.
02 Optimised preparation process for precise, controllable production. The team built an integrated ‘powder–structure–performance’ preparation process system for semiconductor-grade coatings, overcoming the challenge of scaling up high-purity, low-defect, high-bond-strength ceramic coatings. It enables cross-scale precise control from the atomic to the microstructural level, effectively ensuring batch stability and consistency.
03 Adaptation to core equipment for higher quality and efficiency. The project developed an all-domain protective coating solution for mainstream semiconductor equipment, already applied to core components such as electrostatic chucks, chamber liners and wafer transport parts. It improves equipment service stability, reduces the probability of wafer contamination, helps raise chip manufacturing yield, and meets the production standards of high-end semiconductor manufacturing.
Authoritative verification, innovative application
Tested by authoritative third-party institutions and validated through long-term industrial application, the core products show excellent performance: yttrium oxide (Y₂O₃) powder purity reaches 99.99545% and yttrium oxyfluoride (YOF) powder purity reaches 99.9930%, with etch resistance markedly improved over conventional processes; the Cr₂O₃-based composite ceramic coating reaches a microhardness of 1509.1 HV with improved wear life; and the medium/high-entropy multi-component ceramic has a dielectric loss as low as 0.006 (at 1 kHz) with significantly optimised dielectric stability. All metrics meet the application standards of high-end semiconductor equipment.
The technology and products have been applied at scale by a number of semiconductor and high-end electromechanical equipment manufacturers, with notable industrial conversion results. Over the past three years, cumulative new sales exceeded RMB 1.93 billion and new profit exceeded RMB 180 million, effectively driving the upgrading of surface protection technology across the industry, with strong market demonstration effects and industrial promotion value.
During the on-site review, the expert panel visited the production workshop to observe core processes such as high-temperature solid-state reaction, spray granulation and robotic automatic spraying, and carefully checked the testing procedures and quality-control standards for key parameters including coating thickness, porosity and etch resistance. The panel highly recognised the company's integrated ‘material R&D — process optimisation — scaled production — precise testing’ innovation and production platform, noting that the company already has the capacity for batch production of semiconductor-grade high-end ceramic coating materials, with a mature process system and sound quality control, providing a solid guarantee for continued industrialisation and iteration.
Innovation recognised, new journey for industrial expansion
The successful authoritative evaluation is the industry's strong recognition of YR High-Tech's technological innovation capability, independent R&D strength and industrialisation capability in semiconductor key materials, highlighting the company's core competitive advantages in high-end thermal-spray ceramic powders and semiconductor functional coatings.
Going forward, YR High-Tech will take this evaluation as an opportunity to deepen industry-academia-research cooperation with Yangzhou University and other institutions, and to carry out customised R&D and process optimisation with leading enterprises. It will keep advancing core technology iteration, promote industry standardisation of key process parameters and improve its global intellectual property layout. At the same time, it will accelerate cross-sector empowerment, extending its mature ceramic coating protection technology to high-end manufacturing fields such as aerospace, new-energy equipment and the nuclear industry.
The company will continue to focus on the core needs of semiconductor equipment localisation, deepen its work in high-end surface protection materials and coating technology, continuously optimise product performance, improve solutions and enhance industrialisation capability, and use independent core technology to help upgrade China's high-end manufacturing industry and empower the high-quality development of the new-materials industry.