The race is on for chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) market
Despite a growing number of competitors, Applied materials and Rohm and Haas share huge leads in the CMP equipment and materials sectors, respectively, according to the report CMP Technology: Competition, Products, Markets, recently published by The Information Network.
For 2006, Applied Materials dominated the CMP equipment market with a 70% share, nearly three times greater than its closest competitor Ebara. In the CMP materials market, which includes slurries and pads, Rohm and Haas led the market with a 41% share, ahead of Cabot with a 28% share. Rohm and Haas dominated the pad market with an astounding 92% share. The overall CMP materials market grew 24% while the equipment market grew 23% in 2006, mirroring the overall semiconductor equipment market growth. For 2007, The Information Network forecasts the equipment market to drop 3% in tandem with the overall semiconductor equipment market. The materials market is slated to grow 15%.
"The conversion to copper damascene by DRAM and Flash manufacturers will be key to the growth of the copper market and hence the Copper CMP Slurry sector," noted Dr. Castellano, president of The Information Network. "We expect these manufacturers to start significantly increasing the use of copper interconnects in 2007. Already NOR Flash manufacturers have started the migration, and several NAND Flash manufacturers will start using copper in 2007. While Micron Technology has converted to copper interconnects, other DRAM manufacturers will start migrating to copper in late 2007 or early 2008."
