Cabot Microelectronics Corporation

Source: Technology Digital

Date :11/09/2007 09:11:39

Cabot Microelectronics excels at the perfect polishing of semiconductors, which are needed to power wires thousands of times thinner than a single hair

Written and produced by James Buchanan & Patrick Harlow

Semiconductors are the brains and heart of the technology revolution. They are why cell phones are possible, PDAs work so well, and computers are able to do more and more with every iteration.

Part of what has made each generation of products better, faster and smaller is the near perfect pursuit of Moore’s Law, which says that the number of transistors placed on a piece of silicon real-estate can be doubled every two years.

This is no small task: actually it’s a very, very small task, when one realizes that the wires used to connect the transistors on the silicon wafers are .0000045 centimeters across – 10,000 times thinner than a human hair.

“On a single integrated circuit (IC) device there are millions of transistors and other electronic components connected by miles of wiring, and these wires are very small,” says Adam Weisman, VP of business operations for Cabot Microelectronics Corporation.

“These are very complex devices composed of a number of layers of intricate circuitry, and polishing certain layers of these devices to a near perfectly flat surface is a very challenging thing to do. A single scratch from the polishing process and the functionality of the IC device is compromised,” Weisman explains.

With the number of semiconductors being manufactured each year measured in the hundreds of millions, and the Semiconductor Industry Association expecting that 1 billion will be produced in 2010, providing near perfect IC devices is a very big business.

Within that business, is a niche market for the products used to polish some of the different layers of an IC device to as perfectly smooth a surface as is possible.

Cabot Microelectronics serves that niche, and is a manufacturer and supplier of sophisticated polishing compounds (slurries) and is beginning to sell polishing pads, both of which are used in the manufacture of advanced IC devices.

Based in Aurora, Ill., Cabot Microelectronics was originally formed as a division of Cabot Corporation and became a publicly held company in April of 2000. In September of that year, Cabot Microelectronics was divested completely to form its own freestanding company.

“We are the world’s leading supplier of chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) slurries used for polishing advanced IC devices,” says Amy Ford, director of investor relations for Cabot Microelectronics.

CMP is a polishing process that combines continuous chemical and mechanical action to make a surface smooth, flat, and planar. As the process becomes more and more refined it allows for the addition of more layers of intricate circuitry (i.e. functionality and capacity) onto the wafer, simplifies key process steps such as photolithography, enables new materials to be used, and contributes to achieving Moore’s Law.

Within the industry, IC devices (semiconductors) are generally segmented into either logic or memory devices, says Ford. Logic devices are normally computing-intensive devices that need to perform large numbers of processing steps every second. Memory devices function by reading, storing and writing data.

Traditionally, the memory segment has been highly cost sensitive and processing speed is not as critical as in logic devices.

“Since the construction of semiconductor fabrication plants can cost billions of dollars, logic and memory companies sometimes outsource all or a portion of the production of physical devices to foundries, which provide contract manufacturing services,” says Ford.

“It is these three manufacturing segments – memory, logic and foundries – that compose Cabot Microelectronics’ primary customer base,” Ford explains.

According to Weisman, revenues for the past year surpassed $320 million, which the firm believes is at least three times the slurry revenue of the next closest player in the CMP slurry market.

With so much product being pushed out the door by the company’s customers, being a trusted supplier of slurries and polishing pads is a very big deal. Supply chain disruptions for these companies could equal millions of dollars per day in lost revenues.

As Weisman says, “Our ability to consistently deliver products to our customers is a crucial component to their decision making process as to the vendor they will choose to supply these products.”

On the manufacturing side, the company relies on a network of facilities located in the United States, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Wales, to ensure an uninterrupted supply of product to its customers. In aggregate, these facilities produce millions of gallons of slurry annually.

“Due to our size and broad geographic footprint we are able to generate economies of scale,” says Ford. “We are also able to produce slurries across a number of applications such as dielectrics, tungsten, and copper. We believe that our ability to support a number of leading edge customers across the globe, and across all of the major CMP slurry polishing applications, with assurance of supply for business continuity is what makes us unique in the market.”

Working in an industry where precision is highly valued means that Cabot Microelectronics must place a focus on quality control and improvement.

For example, the company’s slurries must be exactly right every time — otherwise they may produce varied and uneven results for the company’s customers. Even the slightest variation can have a deleterious effect on a customer’s bottom line.

“Some of our customers produce millions of dollars worth of products each day at their multi-billion dollar facilities, so they require a high level of consistency and performance from our CMP slurry products in order to increase their manufacturing yields, improve throughput, and minimize production halts,” notes Weisman.

“It is a very complex thing to do, but we believe that our fundamental understanding of the CMP process and the use of strict quality systems — such as the concepts of Six Sigma — allow us to produce high performing slurries with limited variation. This allows our customers to achieve the near perfectly flat surface required to produce high-quality IC devices at a low cost.”

According to Cabot Microelectronics website, the surface of a CMP processed wafer is ultra smooth, which helps reduce the number of defective IC devices produced. A higher yield of good chips on a wafer has a positive impact on total IC device production costs.

Cabot Microelectronics assures the quality of its slurries and pads through its application of Six Sigma throughout its processes, including joint projects with its vendors and customers.

As part of its Six Sigma initiative, the company has formed its own Quality Management System, which follows ISO 9001 requirements. The system includes programs for design and development of products, monitoring and control of incoming raw materials, manufacturing process control, and sophisticated monitoring and control of product quality to ensure they comply with specifications.

“We get very positive feedback from our customers on quality,” says Weisman. “This is evident from the improving ratings that we have been receiving on our customer scorecards and various supplier awards.”

The company is also able to stay ahead of the game when it comes to product development through its significant investment in research and development at its facilities in the U.S. and Asia.

Today, the company has its main research and development facility in Aurora, which is equipped with a state of the art metrology lab and polishing lab, which are both certified to ISO Class 3 specifications (the equivalent of a federal standard Class 1). The Aurora location also has a dedicated chemistry lab and a dispersions pilot plant to support process innovation.

In addition, the company operates its Asia Pacific Technology Center in Geino, Japan, which includes a clean room and provides polishing, metrology and product development capability to support customers in the Asia Pacific region.

Further, the company has recently established a technical service center in Taiwan and a data storage R&D facility in Singapore.

“We have approximately $160 million cash on hand for the company that allows us to continuously invest in research and development, even during downturns in the semiconductor industry,” says Ford.

In all, the company, on average, has invested 15 percent of its annual revenue and 30 percent of its workforce on research and development, including the advancement of surface finishing through the application of novel enabling technologies and the development of optimized processing solutions for specific materials.

The company also works with leading polishing tool vendors to customize products that best fit their specific platforms.

Cabot Microelectronics also uses this knowledge and its own expertise to help its customers implement and integrate improved processes in the customer’s facilities.

“We have clean rooms where we can re-create the customer’s manufacturing process on a small scale to test our products within our customer’s processes,” says Weisman. “This means they can see how our products will integrate with their processes without having to interrupt their plant cycles at their own facilities.”

With its presence firmly established, Cabot Microelectronics is looking to grow the company in what Weisman describes as two pieces.

The first is to focus on the company’s core CMP business, which is the work it does with regard to semiconductors.

“We want to strengthen our core business as far as producing CMP slurries that are of a world class quality and develop and bring new products to market that anticipate and meet the needs of our customers,” says Weisman.

In particular, Weisman says the company is looking at the adjacent markets. Most recently the company introduced a new polishing pad, which with its slurries provides something of a total polishing solution.

“By introducing a new pad, this product opens a whole new market to us that is in the area of $300 million annually,” says Ford.

The second growth piece is to leverage the company’s technology outside of the semiconductor industry in order to be a total, sophisticated polishing systems supplier.

“Essentially, we are talking about perfecting surfaces to increase productivity or increase capabilities of a number of different product categories,” says Ford.

According to Ford, there are a number of products used by various industries that require a perfectly uniform, polished surface using highly refined polishing machinery and processes. These would include the healthcare industry; precision optics, such as those used in lasers; metal finishing and polishing; and mirrors for precise technological devices such as high-end telescopes.

Acquisitions are also expected to play a role in enhancing the company’s expertise in specific categories. By way of example, in July of last year the company acquired QED Technologies, which specializes in unique, patented polishing and metrology systems for high precision optics.

According to a press release by the company, “This acquisition is a further step in the execution of Cabot Microelectronics Engineered Surface Finishes (ESF) growth initiative. Through the ESF initiative the company seeks to leverage its expertise in CMP formulation, materials and polishing techniques for the semiconductor industry to address other demanding market applications requiring nanoscale control of surface shape and finish.”

Nanoscale technology is also an intense area of research and development within the semiconductor industry. According to George M. Scalise, president of the Semiconductor Industry Association, as the industry approaches the practical end of Moore’s Law, nano technology will be the next step forward.

“An indepth understanding of the far reaches of the technologies of our customers is something that is really within our area of expertise,” says Ford. “We think, the more technologically challenging, the better for us.

“This plays to our strengths too, due to the quality of our slurry,” Ford continues. “The industry is looking for a quality product with very low variation, and that is what we strive to produce.”