Posted by Courtney E. Howard
SPOKANE, Wash., 17 Sept. 2011. Honeywell (NYSE:HON) Electronic Materials’ Spokane, Wa., facility will more than double its refining and casting capacity for high-purity copper and tin to meet rising demand in the semiconductor industry. New advanced chip designs requiring high-purity copper, as well as memory manufacturers transitioning from aluminum to copper, are driving demand. The use of copper and tin for advanced chip packaging applications is also contributing to the increased demand.
Further, tin is increasingly used as an alternative to lead for advanced chip packaging applications, helping to ensure compliance with regulations against the use of lead-based materials, including RoHS. Copper has been embraced for chip packaging applications due to the rapid increase in costs associated with gold.
The first phase of the capacity expansion will be complete in the first quarter of next year. The second phase should be completed by the middle of next year.
Copper in integrated circuits provides a lower resistivity than aluminum, which has been widely used for interconnects in the industry. Lower resistivity translates to faster chip speeds, which delivers increased device performance.
"We are committed to meeting the growing needs of the industry for advanced, high-purity metals," explains Mike Norton, product line director for Honeywell Electronic Materials' Advanced Metals business. "We are doing that by making the supply chain and technology investments necessary to meet industry requirements and support our customers, whether they are working on leading-edge technology nodes or within the more mature spaces within the semiconductor industry."
