Sep 6 2004
Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd. has recently acquired a basic patent regarding resist materials useful for manufacturing IC package substrates, etc. The patent specifies the structure of photosensitive resin compositions in a resist material and parameters such as the film thickness and aspect ratio (ratio of line width to film thickness) of the resist patterns formed by the material.
As electrical equipment including cellular phones and personal computers become smaller in size and more advanced in functionality, much further miniaturization and higher wiring density are required in package substrates that mount IC chips. Package substrates are now manufactured with an etching or plating method (semi-additive method in particular). In the future, however, the “semi-additive method,” which is more favorable to finer wiring, is expected to prevail. The above mentioned method is a manufacturing process that uses photosensitive film to form resist patterns on a substrate and produces copper wiring through electrolytic plating. It is regarded as one of the most vital technological features to form resist patterns with high aspect ratios in order to block, whenever possible, the reduction of wiring cross-sections that could lead to increasing electrical resistance.
We recognized the need of resist patterns with high aspect ratios ahead of any other company and have been working on the development of the best resist materials for realizing this technology since 1997. As a leading manufacturer of resist materials, or photosensitive dry films PHOTEC®, we have been successful in developing a series of resist materials. By leveraging technologies garnered through the development efforts, Hitachi Chemical finally acquired this technology related patent for producing high aspect ratio resist pattern materials.
We are now building a patent network for the resist materials used in the process that forms wiring on IC package substrates, with the expectation that the patent we have just acquired will play a key role in the network. By making effective use of this patent network, we will continue to make every effort to maintain and improve our advantageous position in photosensitive dry film operations.
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September 6th, 2004