SAMT enters TSMC supply chain
Jane Wang, Tainan; Adam Hwang, DIGITIMES
Solar Applied Materials Technology (SAMT) has shipped sputtering target materials to TSMC for front-end thin-film processes, according to industry sources.
According to SEMI, sputtering target materials take up about 3% of total material cost in semiconductor manufacturing.
SAMT’s sputtering target materials are mainly used in manufacturing processes for three product categories: optical discs and hard disks, LCD and LED panels, and semiconductors. SAMT has a global market share of over 30% for target materials used to produce hard disks and about 5% for display panels, the sources said.
For panel manufacturing, SAMT targets 8.5G LCD and above lines in China, the sources said, adding SAMT has developed low-resistance ITO rotary targets and obtained certification from first-tier Chinese LCD panel makers.
From recycling industrial wastes, SAMT can recover gold of 5N (99.999%) purity, and blend it with primary gold for making semiconductor-grade sputtering target materials, company president Huang Chii-feng indicated.
SAMT has refining technology to recover precious or rare metals, including gold, silver, platinum, palladium, ruthenium, indium, gallium and tantalum, Huang said.
SAMT president Huang Chii-feng
Photo: Jane Wang, Digitimes, June 2020
