Dow Electronic Materials, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW), introduced its new IKONIC polishing pad platform for chemical mechanical planarization (CMP). The IKONIC platform offers a series of new pads designed to deliver the highest performance levels for the broadest range of CMP applications at or below the 28nm technology node.
Dow’s IKONIC pad platform is a family of products that deliver multiple benefits in copper, tungsten, ILD, STI and other polishing applications. Its formulations combine a unique set of chemistries with a range of hardness and porosity, creating pads that are easy to condition.
IKONIC pads are designed to improve defectivity performance for higher wafer yields, with the potential for extended pad lifetime leading to greater tool uptime. These new CMP pads meet a range of removal rate targets for throughput gains and selectivity requirements to address process needs. Select products from the IKONIC family can also improve planarization efficiency and wafer topography. These benefits make the IKONIC polishing pad platform ideal for a wide range of advanced polishing applications.
"The ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to CMP polishing is no longer viable; a tunable platform of products is required to meet our customers’ ever evolving and more technically challenging process needs," said Colin Cameron, CMP global marketing director for Dow Electronic Materials. "Dow’s understanding of polymer science and its capability to develop CMP solutions help enable our customers to produce next-generation devices. Our customers’ requirements for lower defectivity and improved cost of ownership will continue to drive the focus of our research programs moving forward." IKONIC polishing pads are currently available for sampling, and commercialization is targeted for early 2013.