CMP slurry set to grow 15 percent in 2011 as IC demand continues

NEW TRIPOLI, USA: With a slowdown in IC sales not expected until Q3 2012, demand for slurries to planarize IC surfaces will grow 15 percent in 2011 on top of a 36 percent growth in 2010, according to the report CMP Technology: Competition, Products, Markets, published by The Information Network.

The long awaited transition to copper interconnects for memory devices skyrocketed in 2009 and 2010, and will continue to be a driver for slurry sales. Equipment for manufacturing ICs with copper circuitry grew 152 percent in 2010 compared to 105 percent for the rest of the semiconductor equipment space.

In 2010, growth in logic was more pronounced than memory. The key here is that in a logic device there are 10-12 layers of copper interconnects versus only 1 layer for memory. So, 2010 was an exceptional year for copper because it combined the robust growth of logic as well as the continued transition to copper for memory.

While the overall chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) slurry market grew 36 percent in 2010 to $1.2 billion, the copper slurry market grew 43 percent. Cabot Microelectronics led the overall slurry market in 2010 although its market share dropped 2.2 percent from 2009. DA Nano led the copper slurry market in 2010 as its market share grew 0.7 percent.Source: The Information Network, USA.