Information related to Jingyi Jingwei’s IPO prospectus may be flawed
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After the CMP (Chemical Mechanical Polishing) equipment company Beijing Jingyi Jingwei Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as “Jingyi Jingwei”) responded to the exchange review center’s opinion implementation letter on January 26 this year, on February 5 Attended the meeting quickly and passed smoothly. A reporter from the “Economic Information Daily” noticed that although Jingyi Jingwei’s IPO has passed, the company may have exaggerated, misleading and other flaws in the presentation of relevant technical information. In addition, the regulatory authorities also “surprise confirmation” on whether its 12-inch CMP equipment has Revenue” was asked.
Technical information may be exaggerated or exaggerated
Public information shows that Jingyi Jingwei is a company engaged in the research and development, production and sales of CMP equipment. It belongs to the semiconductor equipment industry, and its downstream customers are mainly integrated circuit manufacturing companies.
Jingyi Micro recently stated in its prospectus (draft for the meeting) that at present, the company’s 12-inch CMP equipment has completed copper (Cu) process verification in the 28nm process international mainstream integrated circuit production line, and has completed the stabilization of 60,000 product wafers. Operation, and received orders from several customers, it has fully mastered the design and manufacturing related technologies involved in 12-inch CMP equipment, and can meet the chip manufacturing needs of 28nm and above processes.
However, an unnamed semiconductor industry expert told reporters that the key to the role of CMP equipment in integrated circuit manufacturing lies in the overall planarization of multiple dielectric layers on the wafer surface. This includes not only the copper process, but also non-metallic media (such as IMD, Poly, Oxide, SiN, etc.) and other metal films (such as W, Al, etc.), as well as the polishing process of silicon itself. Only after these processes are fully validated and passed can the full manufacturing requirements for a specific process node be ensured.
The reporter studied the public information disclosed by Jingyi Jingwei and found that the company has only completed the verification of the copper process on the mainstream integrated circuit production line of the 28nm process. In addition, it is understood that the materials and process parameter requirements of each integrated circuit process are different, and the requirements for equipment are also different. In view of the relatively high requirements of the copper process itself, the verification of the copper process in the 28nm process only represents the equipment technology of the 28nm and above processes. The capabilities are qualified, while equipment technologies for processes below 28nm such as 14nm and 7nm need to be re-verified.
In view of this, industry insiders believe that with only the copper process verification completed, Jingyi Micro claims that it “has fully mastered the design and manufacturing related technologies involved in 12-inch CMP equipment and can meet the chip manufacturing needs of 28nm and above processes.” “The statement is subject to discussion, and its information disclosure may be suspected of exaggeration, inaccuracy, and misleading investors.
In addition, the “Economic Information Daily” reporter noticed that the Shanghai Stock Exchange also required Jingyi Micro to explain the company’s technical capabilities of 12-inch CMP equipment for 14nm and below processes, and compare it with Huahai Qingke’s 14nm and below process CMP equipment technology.
Jingyi Jingwei responded that in addition to higher requirements in terms of planarization non-uniformity, cleanliness control and ultra-thin film thickness control, the 14nm process CMP equipment follows the 28nm process CMP equipment indicator requirements. In addition, the company has related indicators. In terms of technology level, it is equivalent to that of Huahai Qingke. Jingyi Micro further stated that the company and Huahai Qingke’s 14nm process CMP equipment have the same technical level in terms of planarization non-uniformity, but the company’s relevant technology has not yet been industrialized in the 14nm wafer production line. In terms of cleanliness control, the company is currently at the 28nm process level, which is equivalent to the technical level of Huahai Qingke’s 14nm process CMP equipment in terms of particle size control, but it has not yet been industrialized in the 14nm wafer production line. In terms of ultra-thin film thickness control, the company’s technical level is close to that of Huahai Qingke, and it is expected to achieve a 14nm process control accuracy level equivalent to that of Huahai Qingke by August 2024.
At the end of last year, 4 first machines were inspected and accepted
It is noteworthy for investors that Jingyi Jingwei mainly sells 8-inch CMP equipment. However, due to the higher technical requirements and higher gross profit margin of 12-inch CMP equipment, leading international companies have basically stopped producing 8-inch CMP equipment. Domestic Huahai Qingke also mainly produces 12-inch CMP equipment.
However, in the latest disclosed prospectus, Jingyi Micro said that the company’s 12-inch CMP equipment (which can only implement 28nm and above process technology) has completed product verification and confirmed revenue in 2023. According to disclosures, Jingyi Jingwei has achieved revenue from a total of 4 12-inch CMP equipment, all of which were completed in late December 2023. The acceptance period ranges from 22 days to 6 months, all of which are the first machines. The average acceptance period is 4.75 months. However, the prospectus also shows that the average acceptance period for the first machine of Jingyijing’s 8-inch CMP equipment is 10.32 months, which is longer than the acceptance period for 12-inch CMP equipment with higher technical requirements.
Specifically, Jingyi Micro’s four 12-inch CMP equipment were sold to Zhuosheng Micro, Wuhan Chuxing Technology Co., Ltd. (“Wuhan Chuxing” for short), and Zhiwei Semiconductor (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (“Zhiwei” for short). Semiconductor”) and Zhejiang Medicay Optical Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (“Zhejiang Medicay”), the acceptance periods are 7 months, 7 months, 4 months and 22 days respectively.
It is understood that the acceptance cycle of CMP equipment mainly includes product verification, acceptance and other links. Among them, the product verification link includes three parts: installation, hardware debugging and verification, and process verification. The process verification is further divided into two steps: process debugging and verification, hardware stability and process stability long-term verification. The mark of product verification is the completion of all the above steps and confirming that the application of the equipment at the client’s end meets the customer’s specification requirements for product thickness, defects, electrical properties, and yield. Finally, the entire acceptance cycle is completed after the revenue is recognized, and the condition that must be met for revenue recognition is to obtain the acceptance form issued by the customer.
Supervision focuses on “whether there is surprise recognition of income”
The reporter noticed that the exchange also had doubts about the acceptance cycle disclosed by Jingyi Jingwei, and asked the company to further explain the reasons for the short acceptance cycle of 12-inch CMP equipment, and explain whether it is compared with comparable companies in the same industry and other suppliers of similar products to customers. There are significant differences.
After sorting out the inquiry and response reports, a reporter from the Economic Information Daily found that when talking about comparisons with comparable companies in the same industry, Jingyi Jingwei directly stated that it “cannot “Compare”, the former is because the product is “the first in this application field”, and the latter is because “CMP equipment is generally not used in this field, and related products are produced using CMP processes. It is highly innovative and there are currently no other similar products.” ; No explanation was provided for the 12-inch CMP equipment sold to Wuhan Chuxing. In addition, regarding the 12-inch CMP sold to Zhuosheng Micro, Jingyi Jingwei said that compared with the 8-month acceptance period of the first 12-inch CMP sold by Huahai Qingke to IDM model customer Intel Semiconductor (Dalian) Co., Ltd., the company has shortened the acceptance period. 1 month.
When replying to “Are there any major differences compared with other suppliers of similar products to customers?”, Jingyi Jingwei said that there are no major differences in the 12-inch CMP equipment sold by the company to Zhuosheng Micro and Wuhan Chuxing; Zhiwei Semiconductor comes from Other suppliers’ related equipment acceptance cycles are longer than that of Jingyi Micro Products because they purchase a smaller number of CMP equipment for wafer regeneration; Zhejiang Medicay’s reason is that “there are currently no other similar products in this field in China.” And cannot be compared.
However, a reporter from the “Economic Information Daily” noticed that Jingyi Jingwei disclosed the specific dates for each verification stage of the first machine in Zhejiang Medica. Specifically, the equipment only took 2 days to install and 2 days to debug the hardware. The entire acceptance cycle was as short as 22 days, which was even much lower than the first 6/8 device sold to it by Jingyi Jingwei. in. CMP equipment takes a 3-month acceptance cycle. Jingyi Jingwei explained that at that time, because Zhejiang Medicay introduced CMP equipment in the production line for the first time, the verification procedure was relatively simple and the acceptance cycle was short.
A technical person in the semiconductor industry said that the acceptance cycle of the first machine of the 12-inch CMP equipment sold by Jingyi Micro to Zhejiang Medicay is somewhat different from the general industry cycle. Generally speaking, it only takes at least 3-4 weeks for installation and hardware debugging, and then the process verification can be entered. Jingyi Jingwei completed these steps in just 4 days, which is not in line with industry practice.
Jingyi Jingwei explained that the customer Zhejiang Medica’s construction needs are relatively tight; the company’s equipment purchased by customers is mainly used in the manufacturing of non-silicon-based wafer materials, and the demand for CMP technology is lower than that of silicon-based wafers; in Before the client conducts product verification, the company has made full preparations in the company’s production workshop.
What is intriguing is that in order to prove that the acceptance cycle of the first machine of its 12-inch CMP equipment is reasonable, Crystal Micro Microelectronics specifically disclosed the information that Huahai Qingke also has 4 first machines with short verification cycles. However, a reporter from the “Economic Information Daily” comprehensively researched Huahai Qingke’s prospectus and public information and found that Huahai Qingke sold a total of 65 units of 12-inch CMP equipment during the IPO reporting period (referring to 2019, 2020 and 2021), among which the acceptance There are only 4 first machines with a short cycle, which are the 4 first machines specially listed by Jingyi Jingwei. However, two of them are 8-inch CMP equipment, which is not suitable for comparison with the verification cycle of 12-inch CMP equipment; one 12-inch CMP equipment is only used for research and development at a university and does not involve production line product verification; the other 12-inch CMP equipment When used in MRAM production lines, the technical process requirements are relatively low. Industry insiders believe that the four first machines of Huahai Qingke specifically listed by Jingyi Micro are not representative, and the problem of its short equipment verification cycle is not convincing.
What deserves investors’ attention is that due to factors such as the short acceptance cycle, the exchange further inquired about the issue of “whether there is surprise recognition of revenue” for four 12-inch CMP equipment. In response, Jingyi Jingwei responded that “there is no sudden recognition of revenue” for related products. The main reasons include three aspects: the relevant customers have performed their own acceptance procedures and issued acceptance orders; the business cooperation between the company and the relevant customers has a reasonable basis. Based on the business background of the company, the reason for the short acceptance cycle is objective and reasonable, in line with the characteristics of the industry and the essence of the business; according to the company’s interviews with relevant customers, the company’s products have been put into production and use, and the relevant customers have accepted them according to the corresponding procedures. There is no time limit for product acceptance. In the dispute, there is no situation where the product was not actually accepted but the company required a project acceptance certificate and was accepted in advance.
“Economic Information Daily” will continue to pay attention to the problems existing in Jingyi Jingwei’s IPO.
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