MIDLAND, MICH. – Dow Chemical Co. announced the addition of five new members to its SiLKnet Alliance, a collaboration working to create products and processes for low-k dielectric materials. Kulicke & Soffa was among the new members, making it the first back-end company to join the group.

Dow Chemical has been working with many partners to develop its family of SiLK low-k materials as part of a new generation of wafer fab processes. An issue with many low-k materials, though, has been their robustness during assembly processes, such as wire bonding. The addition of K&S should help the alliance address these issues. Greg Bauer, the development director for the SiLKnet Alliance, said, “With expertise in assembly and test, Kulicke & Soffa's membership complements the goal of the SiLKnet Alliance to extend applications support to the back-end.”