Since its founding in 2004, Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. China (AMEC) (688012.SH) has spent over 20 years carving a path in the "no-man's land" of semiconductor micro-processing equipment. Behind this journey stands its visionary leader: 82-year-old Chairman and General Manager Yin Zhiyao.
Yin Zhiyao, born in 1944, holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Science and Technology of China and a PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles. Before founding AMEC, he spent more than two decades immersed in the silicon valley etching equipment circle, serving as a process engineer at Intel and progressing from a senior engineer in R&D to a senior manager at Lam Research. From 1991 to 2004, Yin worked at Applied Materials, holding roles such as Chief Technology Officer for the Plasma Etch Equipment Product Group, Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the Plasma Etch Business Unit, and Chief Technology Officer for the Asia Headquarters. Holding 86 U.S. patents and over 200 international patents, he is known in the industry as "one of the most accomplished Chinese in Silicon Valley." This experience laid a solid foundation for his return to China to start a business.
In 2004, at the age of 60, Yin Zhiyao chose not to retire comfortably in Silicon Valley. Instead, he led a group of overseas technical experts to establish AMEC in Shanghai, targeting the high-end field of plasma etching equipment, which few in China had dared to touch at the time. Facing the near-complete void in domestic semiconductor equipment, he set a nearly "obsessive" rule: absolutely no copying or replicating standard foreign equipment. In the etching field, where only three to five global giants could compete, AMEC chose the most difficult path—original architecture, differentiated specifications, and proprietary intellectual property. Yin deeply understood that in a semiconductor equipment market heavily monopolized by American, European, and Japanese giants, only by mastering underlying original technology could true domestic substitution be achieved.
This determined, "self-innovation" obsession ultimately translated into formidable hard power that earned respect from international peers. In 2004, AMEC boldly broke away from the then-mainstream international technology and pioneered the "Very High Frequency Decoupled Reactive Ion Etching" technology. This technique solved the problem of traditional RF energy interference, achieving independent control of ion concentration and ion energy, which was verified by the industry as the "best solution." Just three years later, the world's three major semiconductor equipment giants successively adopted this technical route. Today, virtually all global CCP etching machines follow this path.
Through continuous iteration based on this underlying architecture, AMEC's etching equipment now covers over 95% of etching applications. Among them, the etching speed control precision between the reaction chambers of the ICP dual-chamber system, the Primo Twin-Star, reaches an astonishing 0.2 angstroms (20 picometers) per minute. This is roughly one-tenth the diameter of a silicon atom and one 3.5 to 5 millionth of the average diameter of a human hair. With this atomic-level processing precision, AMEC's etching equipment has not only steadily increased its market share in major domestic customer production lines but has also entered global advanced 3-nanometer and below integrated circuit manufacturing production lines. As of the end of June 2026, the company had accumulated over 8,800 reaction chambers achieving mass production across more than 220 production lines domestically and internationally.
Yin Zhiyao was well aware that focusing only on etching has its limits. Without thin film deposition capabilities, a semiconductor equipment company would forever remain a "parts supplier." Therefore, over the past decade, AMEC has opened a second battlefield in LPCVD, ALD, EPI, PECVD, and PVD. Taking PECVD as an example, AMEC cross-applied the "decoupling" technology from the etching field to create a unique integrated design with 16 reaction chambers. This design directly broke the capacity bottleneck of traditional equipment, with output increased by 80%-100% compared to standard domestic and international tools. In today's fab environment, where production capacity and floor space are highly valued, AMEC's equipment truly achieves "one machine doing the work of two or more," using extreme cost-effectiveness and efficiency to forcefully breach the defenses of overseas giants. In 2025, sales of thin film equipment, represented by LPCVD, experienced explosive growth, surging 224.23% year-on-year to 506 million yuan.
This leap was built on extremely aggressive and efficient R&D investment. In 2025, AMEC's R&D expenditure reached 3.744 billion yuan, accounting for 30.23% of revenue. In the first half of 2026, R&D spending further increased to 2.042 billion yuan, comprising 30.52% of revenue, far exceeding the average of 10%-15% for STAR Market listed companies. High investment has led to a qualitative change in R&D speed. Previously, developing a new piece of equipment took three to five years; now it takes only two years or even less. Currently, the company's R&D pipeline covers six major categories and over twenty new equipment types.
This strong technological moat has ultimately translated into commercial returns. From 2021 to 2025, AMEC's revenue grew steadily from 3.108 billion yuan to 12.385 billion yuan, a CAGR of 41.28%. Non-GAAP net profit, which better reflects the company's core operations, increased from 324 million yuan to 1.55 billion yuan, a CAGR of 47.84%. Growth continues. AMEC expects its H1 2026 revenue to be approximately 6.691 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 34.89%; net profit attributable to parent is projected at 2.7 billion yuan to 2.9 billion yuan, up 282.48% to 310.81%; non-GAAP net profit is forecast at 1.0 billion yuan to 1.2 billion yuan, up 85.61% to 122.73%. From a single etching focus to a full-platform player, the 82-year-old Yin Zhiyao has, through two decades of dedication, transformed AMEC from a "follower" into a "rule-maker" on the global semiconductor equipment stage.
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