Aurora, Illinois - Cabot Microelectronics Corp has developed a key thermoplastic polyurethane technology which allows the continuous manufacturing of the polishing pads used in the production of wafers of semiconductor products.
The firm, which says it is the world's leading supplier of chemical mechanical planarisation (CMP) polishing slurries and growing CMP pad supplier to the semiconductor industry, has introduced three CMP polishing pads from its Epic D100 platform that are intended to address customers' specific needs in the polishing process. Thy are the result of extensive research and development by Cabot Microelectronics, the firm pointed out in a 20 Oct announcement.
A key benefit is that they can be made using a continuous process which, Cabot says, has attracted many customers due to its unique design that successfully reduces pad-to-pad variation. At the elevated temperatures encountered in the CMP process, thermoplastic polyurethane polymers are softer than conventional thermoset polymers, the firm says.
This characteristic of thermoplastic polyurethane polymers has a direct impact on customers' polishing performance as it helps minimise microscratches on customers' wafers, resulting in lower defect rates for these expensive items.
They also offer extremely short break-in times (i.e. the time needed to reach steady state performance) and customers have validated three times longer pad life compared to conventional pads, Cabot claims.
"We have expanded the Epic product portfolio to respond to specific customer needs and to deliver best-in-class performance for a range of CMP polishing applications," said Dinesh Khanna, Cabot Microelectronics' global business director for CMP Pads.
"We believe our new pad products offer customers unmatched quality, performance and optimal cost of ownership," his statement concluded.
Cabot Microelectronics Corporation, headquartered in Aurora, Illinois, is the world's leading supplier of CMP polishing slurries and growing CMP pad supplier to the semiconductor industry. The company's products play a critical role in the production of advanced semiconductor devices, enabling the manufacture of smaller, faster and more complex devices by its customers.
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