It turns out that this low-key market is so important to chip manufacturing yield!
Latest update time：2021-08-30 19:58
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In this process, particle, impurity and pollution control become extremely important. High-quality filtration solutions can effectively extend the use time of chemicals in the production process, extend the service life of equipment, reduce production defects, ensure the stability of the entire production process, and thus improve the yield of chip manufacturing and reduce production costs in all aspects.
Especially when the market is pursuing advanced technology and wafer production capacity is frequently in short supply, the issue of chip manufacturing yield has once again attracted the attention of the industry. As a result, we have also noticed the market behind chip yield - the filtration, purification and separation solutions market - what kind of market is this often overlooked part?
Shadows in the chip manufacturing process
In recent years, the topic of chip manufacturing has attracted much attention from the industry. As a result, the development of semiconductor materials and semiconductor equipment related to chip manufacturing has also attracted the attention of the industry. These fields are also regarded by the industry as the upstream market of semiconductors and the key to chip manufacturing. For the development of materials and equipment, the filtration and separation market is an important part of these fields. For the semiconductor market, the filtration market is ubiquitous but easily overlooked.
As we all know, photolithography is a key technology driver in the semiconductor industry, including DUV photoresist, top and bottom anti-reflective coating, and immersion lithography, which have all promoted process advancement. But in this process, each step may introduce harmful particle contamination, microbubble void defects, and metal contamination on the wafer surface. This requires coarse filtration filters for photoresist manufacturers and terminal distribution filters for end users to prevent unexpected particles from being deposited on the wafer surface during semiconductor chip manufacturing.
In addition, other materials used in the chip manufacturing process will also affect the final wafer production yield. This includes the increase in the requirements for wafer surface flatness, which has also led to the demand for CMP polishing materials. The filter is an important part of the polishing system - generally, three slurry filters are usually required in the semiconductor polishing system to remove larger abrasive particles and maintain the required abrasive particle formula and chemical composition to maximize the performance of many different semiconductor processes.
Advanced process manufacturing is also inseparable from semiconductor equipment, and with the improvement of process requirements, the use of various types of high-purity gases in advanced equipment has increased dramatically. In order to achieve and maintain the high purity required for these gases, the selection of appropriate filters is also crucial. The particle removal grade is not the only criterion for selecting various filter products. The ability of the filter to remove harmful impurities and detached particles must also be considered.
For semiconductor equipment itself, chemical corrosion also requires filters to ensure its service life. Control fluid contamination will cause equipment shutdown and even affect production efficiency, so contamination control is one of the most important issues in semiconductor device manufacturing. Filters can minimize fluid contaminants, avoid damage to key parts, and ensure that the machine works at peak efficiency.
It can be said that the steps of filtration, separation and purification run through almost the entire chip manufacturing process.
A low-key giant
The market for filtration, separation, and purification has also grown along with the development of the semiconductor industry. In this process, some giant companies have emerged, including Pall Corporation (hereinafter referred to as Pall).
According to public information, Pall has been committed to solving the problem of impurities and contaminants in the chip manufacturing process since the 1980s when microprocessors and personal computers began to be widely used and popularized. During this period, Pall established a microelectronics division to help the development of this business. Since then, Pall's microelectronics division has been growing with the semiconductor industry.
According to Li Tao, general manager of Pall Microelectronics China, in 2012, the development of smartphones became an important driving force for the growth of chip demand. During this period, Pall Microelectronics was the first in the world to launch a 2nm HPDE filter, and successfully provided support for the research and development and mass production of 16/14nm processes for multiple industry-leading foundries, which greatly promoted Pall's in-depth involvement in the manufacturing of cutting-edge chips.
(Photo: Li Tao, General Manager of Pall Microelectronics China)
2015 was a year of major mergers and acquisitions in the semiconductor industry. During this year, Pall also experienced an upgrade. According to relevant reports, Danaher Group acquired Pall for 13.8 billion in 2015. With this acquisition, Pall's semiconductor business has also been greatly improved. Li Tao said: "After being acquired by Danaher Group, Pall Microelectronics Division has been able to further increase its investment in research and development. Benefiting from this, Pall has also accelerated its pace in new product iteration."
As the complexity of chip manufacturing continues to increase, the market's requirements for filtration and purification precision are also getting higher and higher, and Pall is also constantly moving forward. According to semiconductor industry observations, after several generations of technology updates, Pall has taken the lead in launching a number of industry-leading filtration and purification solutions. As a result, Pall has become a member of the first echelon in the semiconductor industry in terms of filtration and purification. Global mainstream chip manufacturers such as Intel, TSMC, Samsung, and Micron have cooperated with them for many years. Close cooperation with leading companies has also made Pall's semiconductor business fruitful.
To date, Pall has been focusing on filtration technology for 75 years, and its microelectronics division's business also covers all key processes in chip manufacturing. The company can provide filtration solutions for various process consumables such as process gases, polishing fluids, photoresists, wet etching chemicals, etc.
Pall's development opportunities in the Chinese market
In the past few decades, the global semiconductor industry has also undergone many changes. Among them, it is worth emphasizing the rise of the wafer foundry model. The rise of wafer foundries has caused the manufacturing center of the semiconductor industry to shift to Asia, which has also affected the global layout of Pall Microelectronics Division.
"To adapt to this trend, Pall has increased its investment in R&D and production in Tsukuba, Japan and Beijing, China, and established R&D centers and production bases. Currently, more than 80% of our products come from Japan," said Li Tao. "At the same time, Pall has also noticed the development of China's semiconductor industry, which is a market that Pall values very much."
According to a report by IC Insight, China is the world's largest semiconductor market and is expected to account for 40% of the global semiconductor market by 2024. At the same time, it is expected that the localization rate of chips used in the Chinese market will reach 20.7% in 2024. In Pall's view, these two sets of data fully illustrate the huge potential of the Chinese chip market, especially the chip manufacturing market.
In order to meet the development trend of China's semiconductor industry and to meet the application needs of domestic customers, Pall began to strengthen local R&D projects to solve new needs of customers in the production process. Pall has set up factories in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Nanjing, Hefei, Dalian and other places. Among them, the factory in Yizhuang, Beijing can also produce related filtering equipment. According to Li Tao, with the development of China's semiconductor industry, Pall plans to transfer more products to the Beijing factory for production.
Under this momentum, the growth of China's semiconductor industry has also brought new development opportunities to Pall. According to Li Tao, in the past five years, the average annual growth rate of Pall's microelectronics business in China has exceeded 20%.
Li Tao believes that over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, China has achieved a breakthrough from quantitative change to qualitative change in many fields. At the same time, China has long become the world's largest electronic consumer products market and the world's largest electronic product production and manufacturing center. Under the three forces of policy guidance, financial support, and terminal promotion, China will surely become the backbone of the global semiconductor industry.
Pall Corporation has been adhering to the concept of "based in China, serving China" since entering the Chinese market more than 20 years ago. As for the Microelectronics Division, the company has put forward the concept of "sharing global technology and contributing to a smart China". Li Tao hopes to use Pall's global technological advantages to contribute to China's chip manufacturing industry.
Under the guidance of this concept, Pall is more willing to express it by putting it into action. According to Li Tao, the Chinese company has formed a research and development team of more than 60 people to carry out local research and development related to the microelectronics division. Since 2019, the semiconductor trade environment has undergone many changes. With the strong support of the Trade Compliance Department, Pall's Microelectronics Division has quickly established internal processes, actively responded to various needs raised by customers, and fully guaranteed the customer's supply chain. Li Tao introduced: "As of the end of 2020, Pall's efforts have received many praises from domestic first-line Fabs."
Talent is an important pillar of Pall's development
During the communication with Li Tao, she mentioned many times the importance of talents to the growth of Pall Microelectronics Division. She said: "The joint development strategy of professional talents and compound talents not only ensures the industry knowledge reserve and the depth of business understanding, but also improves the diversity and innovation of the team."
According to Li Tao, a large number of employees in Pall Microelectronics Division have worked in the company for decades. These experienced employees can help the company and the team grow rapidly, and they are also a kind of wealth of the company.
"Pall has created a sense of belonging for its employees," said Meng Jiaying, national sales manager for Pall SEMI-OEM. "The company has created a large platform for its employees to display their talents." The employee, who has been working at Pall for five years, told Semiconductor Industry Observer that, as an engineer in the semiconductor manufacturing field, he had always focused on technology, but Pall provided him with an opportunity to change roles. The sales role provided him with another perspective on changes in the semiconductor market.
With its open culture, Pall has attracted a large number of talents to join the company's development. Wang Decheng, the national sales manager of SEMI-POU from Taiwan, China, has worked for well-known manufacturers such as ASE and TSMC. The reason why he chose to join Pall was that Pall was willing to provide new learning opportunities for employees. "This is a risk that ordinary companies may not be willing to try, because all changes have a running-in period, and there will be certain risks. But Pall is willing to embrace change and actively cultivate talents, creating a win-win situation for talents and Pall," he said, adding: "Pall's global resource sharing and corporate culture are another reason to attract employees to join Pall."
As Pall's parent company, Danaher Corporation also attaches great importance to the cultivation of different talent echelons. For this purpose, they launched a General Manager Development Program (GMDP program). According to reports, this program is a talent development program for MBAs from top global business schools, which aims to promote employees to learn at work and quickly grow into leadership roles in Danaher. Candice Hou is a member of this program. She told Semiconductor Industry Observer: "The program aims to enable employees participating in this program to complete three to four roles in different functional areas within six years, and to gain a deep understanding of and promote the development of the company's specific business." As the microelectronics business is an important part of the company's future development, she said that she would study the semiconductor market more deeply and make full use of what she has learned to help the company's business development.
*Disclaimer: This article is originally written by the author. The content of the article is the author's personal opinion. Semiconductor Industry Observer reprints it only to convey a different point of view. It does not mean that Semiconductor Industry Observer agrees or supports this point of view. If you have any objections, please contact Semiconductor Industry Observer.
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