Showa Denko Materials Invests 20 Billion Yen to Expand its Production Capacity for Semiconductor Polishing Materials

September 01, 2022

Showa Denko Materials Co., Ltd.

Showa Denko Materials Co., Ltd. (President and CEO: Hidehito Takahashi; hereinafter “Showa Denko Materials”) announces the decision to expand its production capacity and evaluation functions for “CMP slurries,”^※1polishing materials used in the process of  semiconductor integrated circuits production. Showa Denko Materials will build an additional new plant and introduce additional production and evaluation equipment at Yamazaki Works and its Katsuta manufacturing site as well as its consolidated subsidiary Showa Denko Semiconductor Materials (Taiwan) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “SDSMT”) in Taiwan. An investment of approximately 20 billion yen is made to meet the growing demand of CMP slurry, and to drive the development of materials for advanced needs of cutting-edge devices. This expansion is expected to increase Showa Denko Materials Group’s CMP slurry production capacity by about 20 percent.

The CMP slurry market has an annual growing rate exceeding 10 percent since 2019,^※2 driven by commercialization of 5th generation mobile communications systems (5G), which boosts the demand for data centers and mobile terminals, as well as development of advanced semiconductors through technological innovations in such fields as artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous driving. Accordingly, the number of CMP layers is expected to increase with the shift from two-dimensional to three-dimensional structures in semiconductor memories,^※3 and the growing complexity of transistor structures involving finely pitched semiconductor logic^※4 circuits.

Showa Denko Materials’ CMP slurries, having the second largest global market share (value terms in 2021),^※5 are indispensable materials in the manufacturing processes of semiconductor memory and logic devices, with a strength of achieving fewer polishing defects on semiconductor substrates. Showa Denko Materials’ ceria slurries,^※6 including “nano-ceria slurry^※7”, using fine abrasive particles developed with its very own fine particle synthesis technology, are especially well-received for further reducing polishing scratches, and has the world’s top market share (value terms in FY2021).^※8

Showa Denko Materials will invest in enhancing its production capacity and making other improvements for CMP slurries to meet rising demand and the increasing need for higher functionality required of more advanced semiconductor devices. SDSMT will begin in January 2023 to expand its production capacity for nano-ceria slurry used in the transistor formation process for cutting-edge logic devices; from July 2023, its plant will start upgrading manufacturing capacity of ceria slurry with property of high polishing rate and few scratches.

Yamazaki Works introduced cutting-edge defect inspection and other equipment in March 2022 in response to the strong need in reducing polishing damage, with a rising demand for size-reducing semiconductor devices. A more detailed analysis for defect detection on semiconductor substrates will facilitate the development of slurries with low scratch properties for next-generation devices and will further improve the quality of existing products. Yamazaki Works’ Katsuta site will augment the capabilities of ceria slurries and other materials, to achieve polishing rates and planarity superior to its conventional products.

Showa Denko Materials announced in 2020 its plan to invest a total of 11 billion yen in SDSMT and its consolidated subsidiary Showa Denko Electronic Materials (Korea) Co., Ltd. in South Korea to scale up their production equipment and construct a new plant for CMP slurries, thereby strengthening its product supply systems. The latest investment aimed at expanding production capacity and evaluation equipment will allow Showa Denko Materials to ramp up the production and development of next-generation products for state-of-the-art semiconductor memory and logic devices, demand for which is expected to grow. Showa Denko Materials will also actively invest in products with the potential to increase its businesses, holding top shares in the global market.

 

• ※1 CMP (chemical mechanical planarization) refers to technology for smoothing and flattening the rough surfaces created in the production process of semiconductor devices. CMP slurries consist of abrasive particles, additives and aqueous media used for surface treatment.
• ※2 Source: Global Net Corp.
• ※3 Semiconductor memory refers to an integrated circuit in a semiconductor device tasked with storing data.
• ※4 Semiconductor logic refers to an integrated circuit serving as a calculator in a semiconductor device.
• ※5 Source: Fuji Keizai Co., Ltd., "2022 Current Status and Future Prospects of the Semiconductor Materials Market."
• ※6 Ceria slurry refers to a CMP slurry using abrasive cerium oxide particles to enable high-polishing rate with few scratches.
• ※7 Nano-ceria slurry refers to a CMP slurry using fine abrasive particles measuring a few nanometers in diameter developed with Showa Denko Materials’ unique fine particle synthesis technology.
• ※8 Source: Global Net Corp.

 

<Locations of Showa Denko Materials’ facilities and its Group company to be invested in>
Yamazaki Works：Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan
Yamazaki Works (Katsuta)：Hitachinaka City, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan
Showa Denko Semiconductor Materials (Taiwan) Co., Ltd.：Tainan City, Taiwan

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