Leading semiconductor conference in the field of planarization / CMP took place in charming Wiesbaden in autumn 2024
From 15 to 18 October 2024, the only global conference in the field of semiconductor planarization / CMP, the “International Conference on Planarization/CMP Technology”, ICPT 2024, took place in the Kurhaus Wiesbaden, in Europe.
Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is one of the key technologies for the production of microelectronic circuits, and its importance has been increasing rapidly for years. Today, up to 40 CMP process steps are used for the latest integrated circuits in 3 nm technology in order to level layers or structure them over 12 wiring levels. In addition, the importance of CMP for the manufacturing of a wide range of sensors and actuators continues to grow.
Reason enough to meet at an international conference and discuss applications, trends and further developments in the process. This conference offers a comprehensive overview of the current state of research and development as well as industrial trends and requirements. This very successful event once again has been organized by the VDE/VDI Society for Microelectronics, Microsystems and Precision Engineering (GMM), which already has provided excellent support for previous European meetings.
More than 400 participants from over 20 countries and more than 30 well-known exhibitors from the semiconductor industry (including Applied Materials, Ebara, Entegris, DuPont, Dow, Park Systems, Bruker, etc.) took part in the conference. The number of participants and more than 100 scientific contributions in the form of presentations and posters are evidence of the high acceptance and importance of this conference.
Three recognized specialists from the semiconductor industry were invited as keynote speakers:
- Dr. Saifi Usmani, Merck, USA; “Development and Implementation of a Data Ecosystem to enable End-to-End Advanced Predictive Manufacturing using AI”
- Dr. Alberto Pirati, ASML Netherlands BV, Netherlands; “Lithography roadmaps”
- Prof. Dr. Harald Kuhn, Fraunhofer ENAS, Germany; “Challenges for hetero integration process technology, test and reliability”
All keynote speakers emphasized in their talks the importance of CMP as an essential process in semiconductor manufacturing that enables the precision and quality required to produce modern microchips. CMP helps to ensure that semiconductor manufacturers can produce microscopically precise circuits with high performance and minimal defects. This makes CMP an indispensable process in modern semiconductor manufacturing.
The ICPT Outstanding Achievement Award is an award given to outstanding individuals who have made significant contributions to the CMP field in research, development and industry. At the occasion of the ICPT Conference 2024, this award was conferred to
- Dr. Eric Jacquinot, EMD/Merck; Primary research scientist for Klebosol and many other colloidal silica slurries used worldwide
- Dr. Bo Un Yoon, Samsung; Prolific contributor to CMP at Samsung, 150 patents, recognized leader in the field of CMP
- Prof. Yuzhuo Li, posthumous; Driving force in CMP R&D at Clarkson University and later at BASF from the 1990's until his death in 2012
This award not only recognizes professional achievements, but also the dedication and inspiration these individuals provide to others as their role models.
The best student contribution was also recognized during the conference. Muskan Muskan from Hanyang University in South Korea won the Doi Award for the best student paper for her contribution “Effect of sugar alcohols on removal rate and ceria contamination as a function of carbon number in STI-CMP”. The Doi Award is given for the best student paper and is named after Prof. Dr. Toshiro K. Doi, one of the pioneers of CMP, who was honored at ICPT2022 for his life's work.
