PCAS invests to increase manufacturing capacities of electronic polymers
PCAS will spend $8 million within the next few years to significantly increase its production capacity of electronic materials. The main part of this investment will be focused on its Canadian plant in Saint-Jean, Quebec, and specialized in the production of low metal polymers and complex chemicals for two growing segments of the electronic industry: the production of integrated circuit by photolithography and the organic electronic segment, also referred as printed electronic.Â
Half of this investment is dedicated to the emerging OLED, Organic Photovoltaic (OPV), Organic Field Effect Transistors (O-FET) and Sensors technologies and the second half is focused on photolithography polymers and chemicals, to extend the manufacturing capacities and keep lowering the metal level of our products, targeting the low ppt level. Indeed, the miniaturization trend in the electronic industry, aiming at doubling every 18 months the number of transistors on an integrated circuit, is pushing the chemical industry to achieve extremely low metal level in all electronic chemicals. PCAS is today among the best-in-class to produce electronic chemicals with metal contamination at the low ppb level, and its next challenge is to reach the low ppt level.Â
PCAS French site in Normandy will also benefit from this investment to increase its capacity in liquid/solid filtration and participate actively in this growing industry. With the recent acquisition in November 2016 of a world-class R&D centre located in Paris area, including a pilot plant for multi-step synthesis and new cryogenic capacities for conductive polymers, PCAS is now well positioned to be even more the key partner of the electronic industry.
