Fujifilm announces a strategic investment in a new production facility in Kumamoto Japan to support the fast-growing semiconductor industry

TOKYO, September 8, 2022 – FUJIFILM Corporation (President and CEO, Representative Director: Teiichi Goto) has announced that it will invest approximately 2 billion yen installing a production facility capable of manufacturing cutting-edge semiconductor materials in Kumamoto supporting the growth of the electronic materials business.

FUJIFILM Electronic Materials Co., Ltd. (head office in Yokohama City, Kanagawa; President Masashi Enokido), the core company that leads Fujifilm’s electronic materials business, is going to introduce a state of the art facility for producing CMP^*1 slurries, key materials used in semiconductor manufacturing, to FUJIFILM Kyushu Co., Ltd., Fujifilm’s production subsidiary based in Kumamoto Prefecture. This facility will be Fujifilm’s first CMP slurries production facility in Japan and will be operational in January 2024.

The advancement of AI, IoT, 5G and expansion of self-driving technology are expected to drive strong demand and performance enhancement of semiconductors. Now more than ever, it is becoming critically important to provide a stable supply of high-quality and high-performance semiconductor materials.

CMP slurries are employed to polish and planarize complex layers of integrated circuits to customer specific requirements. Fujifilm has outperformed the CMP market growth rate of 10%^*2 through technology, quality and supply chain commitments. 

Fujifilm is going to invest in Japan to strengthen the company’s production capacity of CMP slurries currently in the United States, Taiwan and South Korea and achieve local production of CMP slurries. The company will ensure a stable supply from four production sites. FUJIFILM Electronic Materials is to introduce a production facility for CMP slurries within FUJIFILM Kyushu’s factory, which is a main production site for display materials requiring high quality management. FUJIFILM Kyushu will leverage display materials manufacturing know-how to support the production of high-performance CMP slurries.

Fujifilm also aims to enable advanced semiconductor processes by offering total CMP solutions comprised of slurries and cleaners.

Fujifilm will promote growth strategies including active capital investments in order to achieve sustainable growth of its electronic materials business. Fujifilm is committed to provide technology advancements for the semiconductor industry through its broad product portfolio including CMP slurries, post CMP cleaner, photoresist^*3, photolithography-related materials, polyimide^*4 and image sensor materials^*5. 

• *1 CMP stands for Chemical Mechanical Polishing.
• *2 According to Fujifilm.
• *3 Material coated on the wafer substrate when drawing circuit patterns in the pre-process of semiconductor manufacturing
• *4 A material with strong heat resistance and insulation properties, used for forming semiconductors’ protective films and rewiring layer
• *5 Pigmented photosensitive materials for manufacturing the color filters of image sensors (e.g. CMOS sensor) used in digital cameras and mobile phones

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