Growing U.S. Electronic Chemicals Market Demands Affordable and Innovative Solutions for Specific Customer Needs

Business Wire, June 5, 2008

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- The U.S. electronic chemicals market witnesses robust growth, especially with decreased chip sizes that necessitate newer and more complex chemicals. Simultaneously, performance and cost challenges remain. To overcome these challenges, manufacturers should provide innovative solutions that cater to specific customer needs and ensure better production scales and supply-chain planning.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.chemicals.frost.com), U.S. Electronic Chemicals Market, finds the market expects to grow at a CAGR of 6.7 percent from 2006 to 2013.

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"New technologies, chemistries and geometries emerging in the fields of semiconductor design and manufacturing have all had a positive impact on the growth of the U.S. electronic chemicals market," explains Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst K. Lakshminarayanan. "This apart, the growing demand for electronic goods in the end-user market is also lending to the market's growth."

While the size of the wafer increases from 200 mm to 300 mm (dia), the size of the chip reduces to 45 nm. As a result, an increased number of processing steps creates demand for high quality and newer types of electronic materials and chemicals. This statement is substantiated by the usage of high K, ultra low k, photoresist chemicals for AFEL with high index immersion lithography, high purity wet process chemicals for the new generation micro chips, and so on.

In addition to the usage of advanced materials, this industry also witnesses the usage of alternative material in their process, and this supports semiconductor manufacturers to differentiate their products, which in turn supports the growth of electronic materials. For example, the shift from tungsten interconnects to copper interconnects in the case of memory could well testify the aforementioned statement.

Eroding margins and severe price pressure cause semiconductor manufacturers to exert backward pressure on the electronic chemical suppliers to decrease their raw material costs. Furthermore, the semiconductor manufacturers irrationally increase their capacities to achieve pricing and cost advantage in terms of economies of scale. This erodes the margin of electronic chemicals manufacturers and suppliers to a large extent.

The only way to combat these uncertainties is to have a strategic plan for maintaining production and logistics at an optimum level.

The semiconductor industry witnesses a major shift toward low-cost destinations such as Asia. The industry following the foundry model for manufacturing chips and these fabs are mostly built in China and Taiwan. This trend acts as a major restraint for the U.S. electronic chemicals market.

"Most of the big companies are already outsourcing semiconductor chips from the fabs in Asia, and this trend has increased the number of local competitors in the wet process chemicals segment, where intellectual property (IP) is not so strong," says Lakshminarayanan. "In the case of CMP segment, where IP is strong, U.S. manufacturers are forced to expand globally."

Moving forward, industry consolidation also expects to happen through possible mergers and acquisition, joint ventures and buying of IPs.

The individual needs of the semiconductor manufacturers become more specific and will vary to a large extent in the coming years. To tackle this, electronic chemicals and material manufacturers expect to have a close association with the customer in order to identify their specific needs and provide suitable solutions. This also helps them manage their supply chain more efficiently.

U.S. Electronic Chemicals Market is part of the Chemicals & Materials Growth Partnership Service program, which also includes research in the following markets: Wet Process Chemicals, Photoresist, CMP pads, CMP slurries and Low K Dielectrics. All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants. Interviews with the press are available.

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