FUJIFILM Corporation today announced an investment of 20 billion yen in its semiconductor materials business to further strengthen its facilities for the development, production and quality evaluation of advanced semiconductor materials in Shizuoka and Oita, Japan. The total amount of capital investment is approximately 20 billion yen.
Driven by high-speed, high-capacity communications through 5G/6G, the expansion of autonomous driving, and the spread of AI and the metaverse, demand for semiconductors is expected to increase and their performance is projected to advance as well. Consequently, ensuring a stable supply of higher quality and higher performance semiconductor materials for the semiconductor manufacturing process has become increasingly critical.
Fujifilm offers semiconductor materials used in wafer processing to post processing in semiconductor manufacturing including photoresists, photolithography-related materials, CMP slurries, post-CMP cleaners, thin-film chemicals and polyimides, as well as WAVE CONTROL MOSAIC, which includes color filter materials for image sensors. In addition to its extensive product lineup covering almost the entire range of semiconductor manufacturing processes, from leading-edge to legacy semiconductors, Fujifilm is committed to solving customers’ issues by providing one-stop solutions that leverage its global supply structure and advanced R&D capabilities. At the same time, the company is making aggressive capital investments in production facilities globally, and is expanding production capacity of semiconductor materials.
FUJIFILM Electronic Materials Co., Ltd., the core company that leads Fujifilm’s semiconductor materials business, will strengthen and expand its sites in Shizuoka and Oita to enhance the development, production, and quality assurance of advanced semiconductor materials.
At the Shizuoka site, FUJIFILM Electronic Materials invests approximately 13 billion yen to construct a new building to strengthen the development, production and quality evaluation functions for advanced photoresists, including photoresists for extreme ultraviolet lithography(EUV), and WAVE CONTROL MOSAIC.
The new building will be equipped with the clean room and state-of-the-art inspection equipment. With the new facility, the company will further speed up development, expand production capacity, and enhance its quality evaluation systems. At the Oita site, FUJIFILM Electronic Materials invests approximately 7 billion yen to construct a new building, acquiring land adjacent to the existing site. It will introduce additional production equipment and inspection devices for post-CMP cleaners, which are key materials in the semiconductor manufacturing process. This will expand the production capacity at the Oita site by approximately 40%. Post-CMP cleaners are used in the process of uniformly flattening the surface of semiconductors.
Post-CMP cleaners are used after polishing with CMP slurry to remove particles, minute metal fragments and organic residues while protecting the metal surface, and the market is expected to grow at an annual rate of 9%. Fujifilm will aim to further expand its business as the equipment enhancement enables more stable and rapid supply of post-CMP cleaners. In addition, by making the most of its strength in being able to propose post-CMP cleaners in combination with CMP slurry to customers, it will enhance its contribution to solving the customers’ issues and further improvements in semiconductor performance.
The new building at the Shizuoka site is scheduled to begin operations in the fall of 2025, and the new building at the Oita site is scheduled to begin operations in the spring of 2026.
Fujifilm will continue to contribute to the further development of the semiconductor industry by accelerating the development and the stable supply of semiconductor materials that cover a wide range of products, from leading-edge to legacy semiconductors.
