Fujifilm to Enhance its Production Capacity of Advanced Semiconductor Material CMP Slurries at the Kumamoto Site 

TOKYO, December 5, 2024 – FUJIFILM Corporation today announced that it will enhance its production capacity of CMP slurries^*1, advanced semiconductor materials, at its production site located in Kikuyo Town, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. This expansion aims to support the increasing demand for semiconductor materials in Asia, particularly due to the surge in AI semiconductor requirements. The new facilities are scheduled to start operation in January 2025.

Driven by high-speed, high-capacity communications through 5G/6G, the expansion of autonomous driving, and the spread of AI and the metaverse, demand for semiconductors is expected to increase and their performance is projected to advance as well. Consequently, ensuring a stable supply of higher quality and higher performance semiconductor materials for the semiconductor manufacturing process has become increasingly critical.
CMP slurry is a proprietary formulation containing an abrasive that uniformly planarizes a semiconductor surface, which contains a mixture of wires and insulation films of varying hardness. CMP slurries are expected to show a high annual growth rate of 13%^*2. Fujifilm holds the world's top market share in CMP slurries for copper wiring^*3, which are essential in the manufacturing process of advanced semiconductors. To meet the high customer demands for stable supply and quality, Fujifilm is promoting local production of CMP slurries, including those for copper wiring. In addition to having CMP slurry production sites in Arizona, USA, Hsinchu and Tainan of Taiwan, and Cheonan, South Korea, Fujifilm also began CMP slurry production at its Kumamoto site in January 2024.

In response to the increasing demand for CMP slurries in Asia, driven by the expanding need for AI semiconductors, Fujifilm Electronic Materials Co., Ltd., the core company that leads Fujifilm’s semiconductor materials business, is investing approximately 2 billion yen to enhance the production facilities for CMP slurries, including those for copper wiring, at Kumamoto site. This equipment investment will expand the CMP slurry production capacity at the Kumamoto site by approximately 30%.
Fujifilm provides post-CMP cleaners^*4 as well as CMP slurries as materials used in the polishing process of semiconductor manufacturing. Fujifilm will leverage its strength in offering combinations of two materials used in consecutive processes to solve customer challenges and contribute to further improvements in semiconductor performance.

Fujifilm offers semiconductor materials used in wafer processing to post processing in semiconductor manufacturing including photoresists^*5, photolithography-related materials^*6, CMP slurries, post-CMP cleaners, thin-film chemicals^*7, polyimides^*8 and high-purity process chemicals^*9, as well as WAVE CONTROL MOSAIC^™*10 which includes color filter materials for image sensors. In addition to its extensive product lineup covering almost the entire range of semiconductor manufacturing processes, from leading-edge to legacy semiconductors, Fujifilm is committed to solving customers' issues and contribute to the development of the semiconductor industry by providing one-stop solutions that leverage its global supply structure and advanced R&D capabilities.

• * WAVE CONTROL MOSAIC is a registered trademark or trademark of FUJIFILM Corporation.

• *1 a proprietary formulation containing an abrasive that uniformly planarizes semiconductor surface, which contains a mixture of wires and insulation films of varying hardness.
• *2 Electronic Materials Forecasting Report 2023 by the U.S. research company “Linx”
• *3 “Current Status and Future Prospects of the Semiconductor Materials Market in 2024” by “Fuji Keizai”.
• *4 Cleaners used after polishing with CMP slurry to remove particles, minute metal fragments and organic residues while protecting the metal surface
• *5 Material used to coat wafer substrate when circuit patterns are drawn in the process of semiconductor manufacturing
• *6 Development solutions, cleaners and other materials used in the photolithography process of semiconductor manufacturing
• *7 Materials for forming low-dielectric insulation films
• *8 A material with strong heat resistance and insulation properties, used for forming semiconductors’ protective films and rewiring layer
• *9 High-purity chemicals used in the cleaning and drying processes. The chemicals are employed to remove contaminants during the cleaning and drying stages of semiconductor manufacturing, as well as to eliminate metals and oils during the etching process.
• *10 General term referring to a group of functional materials for controlling electromagnetic light waves in a broad range of wavelengths, including photosensitive color materials for manufacturing color filters for image sensors such as CMOS sensors, used in digital cameras and smartphones

• * Please note that the contents including the product availability, specification, prices and contacts in this website are current as of the date of the press announcement and may be subject to change without prior notice.