On October 22, China's Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. (AMEC, Shanghai) announced that the world's first Primo Domingo gas-phase high-selectivity etching system, independently developed by the company, has been shipped to a major integrated circuit R&D and manufacturing customer in China. The equipment is designed for the fabrication of advanced semiconductor devices such as gate-all-around transistors, 3D NAND flash memory, and 3D DRAM, and is primarily used for high-selectivity material etching.
The Primo Domingo features a fully symmetric chamber structure and optimized flow field design, integrating gas injection, temperature control, and pressure regulation into the etching process system to improve etching uniformity across the wafer surface and process repeatability. The equipment is equipped with an integrated gas cabinet that shortens gas delivery paths and supports rapid, precise control of pulsed gases. To accommodate the operating conditions of highly reactive etching gases, the internal piping uses highly corrosion-resistant materials and special coatings to meet long-term operational requirements.
The wafer temperature control system adopts a dual-cooling, dual-heating pedestal design capable of precise regulation over a wide temperature range. The equipment also incorporates AMEC's Primo C6V3 wafer transfer system, which has already achieved mass-production application, and can be configured with a main etching chamber and an auxiliary annealing chamber to support etching processes for different materials and device structures.
According to R&D data previously disclosed by AMEC, the Primo Domingo achieved a SiGe-to-Si etching selectivity ratio of greater than 700:1 in laboratory GAA and 3D DRAM-related process validation. This figure represents preliminary laboratory validation results and should not yet be regarded as the measured performance of the delivered equipment on the customer's production line. According to the company's 2026 semi-annual report, the equipment had previously undergone multiple process validations in a laboratory Alpha chamber. The shipment of this first unit marks a new delivery milestone following product development and laboratory validation.
AMEC first launched the Primo Domingo product in March 2026. Currently, its etching equipment products cover a variety of etching applications for process nodes from 65nm to 3nm and beyond. Its dielectric etching equipment has achieved aspect ratios of 60:1 to 90:1, while its silicon etching equipment has reached up to 140:1. As of the end of June 2026, the company had cumulatively deployed more than 8,800 reaction chambers in mass-production applications across more than 220 production lines in China and abroad.