Toppan welcomes the potential for China-based companies to become partners, according to the Japan-based photomask vendor. Toppan is looking to work closely with China-based enterprises or local governments through some form of collaboration such as a joint venture.

Toppan recently held a 20th anniversary commemorative ceremony for its Taiwan-based subsidiary Toppan Chunghwa Electronics (TCE). At the event, Toppan president Shingo Kaneko indicated TCE will be dealing with more business coming from China where local chipmakers are building new fabs.

Toppan also holds a positive and open attitude toward potential partners in China, Kaneko said. The photomask industry will continue to grow with China being the largest market in the future, Kaneko suggested.

Toppan already has a plant in Shanghai to support 40nm and more mature manufacturing technologies. The company added it will continue to develop new solutions for more advanced process technologies to satisfy rising demand locally.

18 new wafer fabs will be built for the manufacture of logic chips, DRAM and 3D NAND flash memory in China over the next several years. International fab toolmakers, and components and materials suppliers have acknowledged demand will be robust driven by the China government's policies to raise local IC self-sufficiency.

Toppan has a nearly 35% share of the global photomask market, with eight production bases worldwide. Toppan provides support for 14nm process manufacturing through TCE and its Dresden (Germany) and Asaka (Japan) plants, and is engaged in R&D for 7nm manufacturing at its Asaka plant. According to Toppan's technology roadmap, the company plans to kick off R&D for 5nm process manufacturing in 2018.

Toppan is also working with a number of semiconductor companies including Globalfoundries, ASML and IMEC to develop jointly photomask technologies for advanced-node manufacturing.