Ashland Again Expands Its Electronic Chemicals Manufacturing Plant in Korea

18-Sep-2001

Ashland-ACT Korea Ltd. (AAKL) has expanded its capacity for manufacturing advanced photoresist strippers at its plant in Pyongtaek, Korea, by 35 percent. AAKL operates as a business unit of the Electronic Chemicals Division of Ashland Specialty Chemical Company, a wholly owned division of Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH).

Ashland's plant serves customers in Korea and throughout Asia, including Taiwan, Singapore, China and Malaysia. This is the facility's second significant expansion for photoresist stripper and etch residue remover products since production started there in 1999. The earlier increase was 50 percent.

The latest upgrade enables AAKL to expand its range of products to include manufacture of Ashland's ACTâ NE-series and BNE-series photoresist strippers and etch residue removers. ACTâ NE products operate at ambient temperatures, are buffered to ensure process stability, and are compatible with aluminum, copper and low-k films over a wide range of process times. They have been included as the process of record for two popular low-k films.

"We provide fabs in Korea and across Asia with products made to their specifications and have local experts to service and work with customers daily in developing new products for the next generation of chips," said Marcello Boldrini, Electronic Chemicals Division business director for Asia. "We are very excited about our performance and pleased with our continued investment in the region to help our customers achieve success in their business objectives."

Earlier this year, Ashland opened an applications lab in Taiwan to provide technical support for Ashland-ACT photoresist stripper customers in the region, the first such facility in Taiwan and the first in Asia outside Japan.

In addition to manufacturing stripper products, AAKL also serves as the sales arm to Korea for wet-process performance products supplied by an Ashland joint venture with Union Petrochemical Corp. - called Ashland Union Electronic Chemicals Corp. (AUECC). AUECC operates a wet-process chemicals manufacturing plant that opened in mid-2000 near Tainan Science Park in southern Taiwan.

Charles W. Cook Jr., vice president and general manager of Ashland's Electronic Chemicals Division, said: "AAKL and AUECC demonstrate Ashland's commitment to serving the Asian microelectronics market. We plan to continue our growth as a global supplier - in Asia and elsewhere - providing consumable fab materials, consistently, with high technical and service levels worldwide."

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/4721/ashland-again-expands-its-electronic-chemicals-manufacturing-plant-in-korea.html