(December 20, 2010) — NexPlanar will open a new manufacturing facility in Hillsboro, Oregon, by the end of 2010 for increased production of chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) pads used in semiconductor manufacturing. The company is moving into an 18,000 square foot facility from a smaller location in the same town. NexPlanar also manufactures pads in Minneapolis, MN.
Approximately ten new jobs will initially be added to the NexPlanar staff as the new facility ramps up. The company did not consider moving from the Portland region. "We originally selected the Hillsboro area because of its proximity to our customer base and the tremendous talent pool of qualified personnel in high technology manufacturing," commented Jim LaCasse, NexPlanar CEO.
"Customers in the US and Asia have been qualifying NexPlanar’s pads, and it became necessary to increase capacity. We also wanted to have the ability to incrementally increase capacity in the future. This new Hillsboro site provides for a significant capacity increase and the flexibility needed for the future," LaCasse added.
Via NexPlanar’s "void engineering" concept, the CMP pads, which planarize a semiconductor wafer, have a designed-in porosity and surface roughness distinct from other products. While maintaining desirable removal rates, these features improve pattern density insensitivity and lower defects. NexPlanar offers soft pads technology and a new line of Element semi-hard and hard pads.
NexPlanar builds next-generation CMP pads based on proprietary nano-domain technology for the semiconductor device industry. See www.nexplanar.com.
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