Asahi Kasei opened a new slitting facility for SUNFORT dry film photoresist (DFR) at its manufacturing site in Tainan, Taiwan, expanding local production capacity for materials used in advanced semiconductor packaging. The company completed construction on July 3, 2026, and plans to begin commercial operations in July as demand for semiconductor packaging materials rises alongside AI infrastructure and data-processing requirements.
The approximately ¥2 billion ($12 million or €11 million) investment will increase Asahi Kasei’s DFR slitting capacity by 40%, with the facility designed to support output of up to twice the current level. Slitting converts master rolls of photoresist film into customer-specific widths and represents a critical production step for maintaining product quality and supply reliability. The new facility uses upgraded slitting equipment and stringent cleanroom controls to support semiconductor packaging customers concentrated in Taiwan.
SUNFORT DFR supports conventional stepper exposure systems and laser direct imaging (LDI) systems used to transfer circuit patterns onto semiconductor packaging substrates. Asahi Kasei positions its Electronics Business as a strategic growth area and expanded the SUNFORT portfolio in May 2025 with SUNFORT TA, a DFR series developed for advanced semiconductor packaging used in AI servers.
• Location: Tainan, Taiwan
• Investment: Approximately ¥2 billion ($12 million or €11 million)
• Capacity expansion: 40% increase in DFR slitting capacity
• Expansion potential: Facility can support up to twice the current output
• Technology: SUNFORT dry film photoresist for advanced semiconductor packaging
• Exposure systems: Conventional steppers and laser direct imaging systems
• Target applications: High-density semiconductor packaging, including packages used in AI servers
“Taiwan is a strategically important location with a strong concentration of semiconductor packaging-related companies, making it essential to have a supply system capable of supplying products rapidly and reliably in close proximity to customers.”
🌐 Analysis: As semiconductor vendors move toward chiplets, high-bandwidth memory, larger package substrates, and increasingly complex redistribution layers, packaging materials and back-end manufacturing capacity represent an expanding part of the AI infrastructure supply chain. Asahi Kasei’s investment places additional DFR processing capacity close to Taiwan’s semiconductor packaging ecosystem and follows the company’s 2025 introduction of SUNFORT TA for AI server packaging applications.
