Dow announced few days ago that construction is underway in Cheonan, Korea for a new manufacturing and testing facility for metallization materials used in advanced chip packaging. The new capacity adds to the manufacturing infrastructure currently in place at other global Dow sites.“We are positioning this facility in Korea to provide material supply close to our local and regional customers,” said Leo Linehan, global business director for Advanced Packaging Technologies. “This significant investment further demonstrates our commitment to growing our capabilities and supporting the growth of our customers.”
Initial products manufactured in the new facility will be the components for Dow’s lead-free Solderon BP tin-silver, which includes low-alpha tin, and electroplating (EP) copper used in Intervia and Ultralink products for advanced chip packaging and Ultrafill and Nanoplate products for semiconductor applications. The new facility adds to the capacity for metallization products already in place at the company’s Marlborough, MA, Sasakami, Japan, and Lucerne, Switzerland sites.
The raw material and manufacturing areas in the new facility will be constructed to specifications required to manufacture electronic-grade materials, and class 1000 and class 10 cleanroom spaces will be constructed for product packaging.
In addition to manufacturing, the facility will include quality control and applications testing labs. The facility is expected to be operational in Q2 of 2012, with ramp up of commercial volumes throughout 2012 as customer qualifications progress. The facility is expandable for future growth.
Chip packaging continues to be increasingly important in electronics, particularly mobile devices, as the demand for more functionality in the same or smaller footprint grows. 3D packaging, which allows multiple chips to be connected and stacked, is increasingly important because it delivers greater functionality and faster data transmission – all within the same compact space. 3D packaging requires high-performance metallization materials that are manufactured with tight quality specifications.
