Dow Launches OPTIPLANE™ CMP Slurry Platform for Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing

Newark, DE - June 07, 2016

Dow Electronic Materials, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW), today launched its OPTIPLANE™ slurry platform for chemical mechanical planarization (CMP). The OPTIPLANE slurry family was developed to satisfy customer demand for advanced slurries that can meet defect reduction requirements and tighter specifications at a competitive cost for manufacturing the next generation of advanced semiconductor devices.

The global CMP consumables market continues to grow, driven in part by new 3D logic, NAND flash and packaging applications demanding greatly improved planarization and minimal defectivity to meet the performance requirements of numerous advanced electronic devices.

“Logic and memory chip companies producing advanced semiconductor device wafers increasingly face challenges meeting evolving demands for enhanced performance and reduced cost, while maximizing yield. CMP becomes a key enabler in the manufacturing process, and the use of CMP is increasing,” said Adam Manzonie, global slurry business director, CMP Technologies, Dow Electronic Materials. “The OPTIPLANE™ slurry platform has been developed to respond to our customers’ needs for versatile and cost-effective CMP slurries that address emerging requirements.”

OPTIPLANE CMP slurries deliver a range of tunable removal rates through advanced chemistries and optimized particle concentration. Selectivities are adjustable to meet unique customer specifications. While enabling excellent planarization efficiency and low defect levels, the dilutable OPTIPLANE CMP slurry platform also offers improvements in yield and cost of ownership (CoO).

“As a technology leader in CMP, Dow has a strong understanding of the material interactions between CMP polishing pads and slurries,” said Marty DeGroot, global R&D director, CMP Technologies, Dow Electronic Materials. “This allows us to leverage our R&D capabilities to develop slurry formulations that correspond with pad performance and deliver unique customer-specific performance benefits.”

The first formulation to be introduced is the OPTIPLANE™ 2118 CMP slurry, a next-generation interlayer dielectric (ILD) slurry, which can also be used in various front-end-of-line (FEOL) applications. OPTIPLANE 2118 CMP slurry is now available for sampling. To request a sample or learn more about the OPTIPLANE platform, contact your account representative.

About Dow Electronic Materials
Dow Electronic Materials, a global supplier of materials and technologies to the electronics industry, brings innovative leadership to the semiconductor, interconnect, finishing, photovoltaic, display, LED and optics markets. From advanced technology centers worldwide, teams of talented Dow research scientists and application experts work closely with customers, providing solutions, products and technical service necessary for next-generation electronics. These partnerships energize Dow's power to invent. Its key end-use applications include a broad range of consumer electronics from personal computers, to television monitors, smart phones and tablets and other mobile devices as well as electronic devices and systems used in a variety of industries. More information about Dow Electronic Materials can be found at www.dowelectronicmaterials.com.

About Dow
Dow (NYSE: DOW) combines the power of science and technology to passionately innovate what is essential to human progress. The Company is driving innovations that extract value from material, polymer, chemical and biological science to help address many of the world's most challenging problems such as the need for clean water, clean energy generation and conservation, and increasing agricultural productivity. Dow's integrated, market-driven, industry-leading portfolio of specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics businesses delivers a broad range of technology-based products and solutions to customers in approximately 180 countries and in high-growth sectors such as packaging, electronics, water, coatings and agriculture. In 2015, Dow had annual sales of nearly $49 billion and employed approximately 49,500 people worldwide. The Company's more than 6,000 product families are manufactured at 179 sites in 35 countries across the globe. References to "Dow" or the "Company" mean The Dow Chemical Company and its consolidated subsidiaries unless otherwise expressly noted. More information about Dow can be found at www.dow.com.

For Editorial Information:

Rebekah Lazar
Dow Electronic Materials
+1 302 509 1859
[email protected]

Amy Smith
Impress Labs
+1 401 369 9266
[email protected]