Report Describes the Chemical Mechanical Polishing Equipment and Materials Market

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Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) Equipment and Materials

STUDY GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is a process that, during the past 20 years, has achieved a high level of importance in various industrial sectors, particularly in microelectronics.

BCC published its first report on Equipment and Materials for Semiconductor Cleaning and Planarization in 2001, followed by a more detailed study related to chemical mechanical polishing in 2003. During the last 5 years, various technological advances have occurred in this field, leading to increased market demand for CMP equipment and materials.

The main goal of this report is to provide new insights into current CMP technology, outlining technological trends, and supplying an updated market analysis of equipment and materials utilized for chemical mechanical polishing.

Specifically, the major objectives of this study are to:

• Provide an updated review of the chemical mechanical polishing process and related equipment, focusing on the most advanced equipment upgrades and variants.
• Provide an overview of materials commonly used in chemical mechanical polishing and identify new materials.
• Highlight new technological developments in chemical mechanical polishing, while outlining technical issues.
• Review the fields of application for CMP and investigate emerging applications.
• Estimate current global markets for CMP equipment and materials (including CMP and post-CMP equipment, CMP slurries, CMP pads and pad conditioners) with growth forecasts through 2013 for each market segment.
• Identify important technology and market trends within each market segment.
• Supply an updated review of current producers of equipment and materials for chemical mechanical polishing.
• Identify major users of CMP equipment, slurries, pads and pad conditioners.
• Provide a description of current worldwide research activities and evaluate their impact on industry growth.
• Determine trends in U.S. patents issued during the most recent years

REASONS FOR DOING THIS STUDY

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is used to create very smooth (i.e., polished) surfaces. During manufacturing of advanced devices used in microelectronics and other fields of application, chemical mechanical polishing serves the critical function of producing near perfectly flat (or planar) films and preparing the film surface for the deposition of successive layers. For this reason, the CMP process is also known as chemical mechanical planarization.

Although the origins of the CMP process can be traced back to the 1960s, it was not until the 1980s that this technology entered the main stream, when IBM introduced CMP for the planarization of inter-layer dielectrics and multilayered metal structures in semiconductor devices.

Since then the market for CMP equipment and materials has grown steadily, accompanied by a rapid increase in R&D activities aimed at developing slurry formulations and equipment designs to meet more stringent requirements associated with the increasing miniaturization of microelectronic devices.

Today, the CMP market is worth $2.8 billion and still growing at a fairly healthy pace.

The principal reason for doing this study is to present a current assessment of the CMP industry from both a technological and market point of view and to outline future trends and key developments.

There is also a need to evaluate the current status and future trends of the CMP industry from a global standpoint. With the ongoing globalization of markets and the relocation of many manufacturing facilities to lower cost countries, it is also necessary to provide a geographical mapping of points of production of CMP equipment and materials, relative to global sales and distribution. Such an evaluation will contribute to a broader understanding of growth opportunities for CMP equipment and materials, and their applications within the U.S. and abroad.

An equally important reason for performing this study is to provide an overview of global R&D activities related to the CMP industry, both within public and private organizations, and to illustrate the latest technological developments that can assist companies in finding opportunities for process and productivity improvements and, consequently, positively impact their future market growth.