On July 9th, according to Korean media BusinessKorea, Samsung Electronics announced the development of reusable chemical/physical wafer polishing pads (CMP). This product was jointly developed by Samsung Electronics and another company, F&S Tech. This product is mainly made of polyurethane and is used to chemically and mechanically polish the surface of silicon wafers for the next step of the manufacturing process. At present, such polishing pads are discarded and incinerated after one use, and the cost is very high.
The CMP polishing pad consists of four layers, including the surface that directly contacts the wafer, the adhesive, and the bottom pad. Samsung Electronics and F&S Tech separate the surface of the product and re-harden it to restore the product to a brand new state. The official said that the quality of the processed product is as good as the brand new one.
At the request of Samsung Electronics, F&S Tech started manufacturing reusable CMP polishing pads in small batches in early 2021 and applied them to actual production lines. Although the current usage is very small, Samsung Electronics has become the first company in the semiconductor industry to use recyclable CMP. The two companies are currently studying the actual performance of this product in order to evaluate whether to apply it on a large scale.
Foreign media said that Samsung Electronics needs to use tens of thousands of CMP polishing pads every month. The global market size of this product is estimated to be 5.65 billion yuan per year. Samsung Electronics has a very large demand for this product. At present, 70%-80% of the polishing pads on the market are manufactured by DuPont of the United States, and the semiconductor industry is very dependent on this. If reusable polishing pads are applied, it will significantly reduce the cost of Samsung Electronics manufacturing chips, while reducing its dependence on American technology.