Who is Cabot Microelectronics?
The company is the leading supplier of slurries used in chemical mechanical planarization (CMP), a polishing process used to manufacture integrated circuit (IC) devices. The company began developing CMP slurries some two decades ago for IBM, who pioneered CMP processing of ICs. What is Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP)? CMP is a process used by semiconductor chipmakers to polish a silicon wafer to achieve a near-perfect flat and smooth surface, upon which layers of integrated circuitry are built. Using a chemical slurry formulation and mechanical polishing process to remove unwanted conductive or dielectric materials, CMP enables chipmakers to achieve higher-performance chips for advanced applications. What is CMP slurry? CMP slurries are highly engineered chemical formulations, that smooth and flatten the wafer surface. CMP slurries prepare the wafer for subsequent photolithography steps in which the pattern of the integrated circuit is imaged onto the wafer surface. Cabot Micro
