Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is a polishing method that combines chemical etching and mechanical grinding, and is a key process for planarizing the wafer surface in the integrated circuit manufacturing process.
From the perspective of the market segment of CMP materials, polishing fluids and polishing pads account for the largest market share. From the perspective of global corporate competition, the global polishing fluid and polishing pad market has long been monopolized by American and Japanese companies. In the future, as China's domestic semiconductor market continues to grow and national policies support the "semiconductor and integrated circuit" industry, the localization and localization of China's CMP polishing materials will accelerate the supply process.
1. Polishing liquid and polishing pad are the main CMP materials
Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is a polishing method that combines chemical etching and mechanical grinding, and is a key process for planarizing the wafer surface in the integrated circuit manufacturing process. CMP polishing materials can be specifically divided into polishing liquids, polishing pads, regulators, cleaning agents, etc. Currently, polishing fluids and polishing pads account for the largest market share. In 2018, polishing fluids and polishing pads accounted for 49% and 33% of the CMP polishing material market, respectively.
In 2019, the global market size of polishing pads and polishing fluids was US$700 million and US$1.2 billion, respectively, an increase from 2018.
2. The global high-end market is monopolized by American and Japanese companies
In the corporate competitive landscape, the global polishing fluid and polishing pad market has long been monopolized by American and Japanese companies. For example, in the polishing fluid market, Cabot of the United States has a market share of 33%; in the polishing pad market, the market of DOW of the United States The share reached 79%. In China, the import dependence of polishing fluid has been broken by SHAJ Electronic Materials Technology Group, and the products of HBDL Electronic Materials Technology Company in the field of polishing pad products have entered the mainstream market.
3. China's CMP material market welcomes development opportunities
Due to different process and technology nodes, each wafer will undergo several or even dozens of CMP polishing processes during the production process. As the chip size continues to decrease in the future, the steps of CMP polishing will continue to increase, and the demand for CMP materials will also continue to increase. Given that mainland China is already the world's largest semiconductor market, semiconductor materials, as an important component of the semiconductor industry, have huge potential for future development.
At the same time, as China's national policies support the "semiconductor and integrated circuit" industry, the process of localization and localization of China's semiconductor materials will accelerate. In December 2019, according to the "Guiding Catalogue for the First Batch Application Demonstration of Key New Materials (2019 Edition)" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in the field of integrated circuit applications, both CMP polishing fluids and CMP polishing pads were selected.