SEMATECH and Cabot Microelectronics to accelerate chemical mechanical planarization technology for future devices

USA: SEMATECH announced that Cabot Microelectronics Corp., the world’s leading supplier of chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) polishing slurries and a growing CMP pad supplier to the semiconductor industry, has joined its Front End Processes (FEP) program and will collaborate with SEMATECH to develop advanced solutions for emerging CMP applications.

“SEMATECH provides Cabot Microelectronics with excellent process capability to help identify and demonstrate emerging applications for CMP consumables,” stated Ananth Naman, Cabot Microelectronics’ VP of R&D. “We expect this collaboration to help enable Cabot Microelectronics support our customers’ emerging CMP requirements.”

As semiconductor device sizes shrink, new materials are introduced, and higher yields are targeted. Achieving wafer scale planarity through CMP has become increasingly challenging. These issues are expected to continue to become more challenging in the context of low power technologies.

“SEMATECH is pleased to welcome Cabot Microelectronics as a program member,” said Paul Kirsch, SEMATECH’s director of Front End Processes. “Cabot Microelectronics’ CMP processing solutions will complement our own device and process expertise. We will work together to develop practical, manufacturable solutions to address the emerging needs of advanced transistor technologies.”

The goal of SEMATECH’s FEP program is to enable novel leading-edge materials, processes, structural modules and electrical and physical characterization methods to support the continued scaling of logic and memory applications.