Photoresist Consumption Spend Forecaster

Photoresist costs can swing with slight thickness drift or reclaim performance. Enter monthly wafer volume and resist cost per wafer to see monthly and annual spend, the incremental dollars lost to drift, and the effective cost per wafer after reclaim.

Total wafers coated each month.
Material cost allocated per wafer at baseline thickness.
Defaults to 5%. Extra resist consumption driven by process drift.
Defaults to 10%. Portion of resist recovered and reused.

Validate results against your material balance—actual spend depends on coat track settings, bake losses, and vendor pricing.

Examples

  • 85,000 wafers/month, $1.25 per wafer, 6% drift, 12% reclaim ⇒ Monthly resist spend: $99,110.00 • Incremental cost from thickness drift: $5,610.00 • Annual spend at current settings: $1,189,320.00 • Effective cost per wafer: $1.1660/wafer • Recovered resist share: 12.00%
  • 120,000 wafers/month, $0.95 per wafer, 3% drift, 8% reclaim ⇒ Monthly resist spend: $111,096.00 • Incremental cost from thickness drift: $3,237.60 • Annual spend at current settings: $1,333,152.00 • Effective cost per wafer: $0.9258/wafer • Recovered resist share: 8.00%

FAQ

How do I include solvent rinse costs?

Add the rinse cost into the per-wafer input so the blended spend reflects all chemicals consumed per coat.

Can I simulate improved reclaim systems?

Yes. Increase the reclaim efficiency percentage to see how much spend drops when reclaim tanks capture more resist.

Does the calculator handle multiple litho layers?

Multiply wafers per month by the number of resist coats required and enter that composite volume to approximate multilayer flows.

What about volume ramp scenarios?

Update the wafer count with your ramp target to preview chemical spend before approving new tool installs or capacity additions.

Additional Information

  • Baseline spend assumes your reclaim loop recovers the percentage entered before drift adjustments.
  • Drift inflates total resist usage multiplicatively—small percentage increases can add thousands of dollars per month.
  • Effective cost per wafer helps benchmark lithography modules or compare across fabs with different reclaim efficiency.