ACM Research, Inc. (ACMR) is a publicly traded American semiconductor company that engages in the manufacture and sale of single-wafer wet cleaning equipment used to improve product yield.
Although based in the U.S., the majority of the company's business is done in China through its subsidiary, ACM Research (Shanghai).
Background
ACMR was founded in 1998 by David Wang. Wang is credited with inventing stress-free copper polishing technology.[2][3]
Initially the tools were position as a competitor to chemical metal planarization but did not find any success. Due to strong backing, ACMR pivoted and shifted focus to wafer cleaning by carving out a niche.[3]
The first major customer for ACMR was SK Hynix who started placing orders for its cleaning tools in 2013.[3] ACM's proprietary technology, Space Alternated Phase Shift (SAPS) has been shown to be more effective at removing random defects on wafers than jet spray or conventional megasonic cleaning technologies.[5]
In March 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission named ACMR as a company that faced delisting if it didn't hand over detailed audit documents to support its financial statement. This came as a result of the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act. ACMR's stock price dropped 27% as a result.[9] In response, ACMR changed its auditor from BDO China Shu Lun Pan in Shenzhen to Armanino in San Ramon, California so it would no longer be subject to the related delisting guidelines.[10]
In April 2022, ACMR planned to build a fab equipment plant in Korea. It was speculated this was done to avoid being involved the China–United States trade war.[7]
