Albany, NY – Signifying continued success with the employment of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s innovation-focused economic development strategy for New York State, SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (SUNY Poly CNSE) and SEMATECH today announced Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation. (Mitsubishi Chemical) will become the newest member of the Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP) Center, located at SUNY Poly CNSE’s $20 billion Albany NanoTech Complex.

“As further testament to Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s vision that is driving high-tech business growth and creating exciting job opportunities throughout New York State, we are proud to welcome Mitsubishi Chemical to the CMP Center as the most recent example of an internationally recognized company seeking to leverage SUNY Poly CNSE’s unmatched technological capabilities to meet the demands of their global customer base,” said Dr. Alain Kaloyeros, President and CEO of SUNY Poly. “Governor Cuomo’s 21st Century economic model for New York State is catalyzing a bright future for innovation and enabling companies such as Mitsubishi Chemical to remain at the forefront of scientific discovery by utilizing SUNY Poly’s unique facilities and wide-ranging scientific expertise.”

“We are thrilled to collaborate with SUNY Poly CNSE and SEMATECH and become a member of the CMP Center, which offers unsurpassed capabilities and access to advanced 300 mm wafers. Now Mitsubishi Chemical can move ahead in developing post-CMP cleaning chemicals for the most advanced technology nodes, with revolutionary cleaning chemicals for 10nm, 7nm, etc., soon to be available worldwide,” said Mitsubishi Chemical Chief Operations Officer for Information and Electronics, Yoshio Katsuro. “We originally began to work with SUNY Poly CNSE to obtain data that only SUNY Poly CNSE’s state-of-the-art resources could provide, and are now looking forward to building upon this relationship to expand and refine our globally competitive menu of post-CMP materials.”

The agreement will support a collaborative effort between SUNY Poly CNSE, SEMATECH, and Mitsubishi Chemical researchers as Mitsubishi Chemical develops next-generation post-CMP cleaning chemicals, which are used by companies that manufacture computer chips to remove excess materials and chemical solutions, or “slurries,” that are used as part of the CMP process to create the most uniform silicon wafer surface possible, upon which chips are built layer-by-layer. As these components decrease in size to achieve greater speeds and maximize energy efficiency, and as wafer size increases to deliver economies of scale, the techniques used as part of the CMP and post-CMP processes become more sensitive, necessitating novel solutions like those being pursued by Mitsubishi to ensure the continued progress of computer chip development.

Furthering Governor Andrew Cuomo’s public-private partnership-centered initiatives for spurring business growth, the Planarization Center will offer Mitsubishi Chemical its cutting-edge tools, infrastructure, and resources, including access to advanced 300 mm wafers, which will provide a critical testing platform for a full slate of post-CMP cleaning chemicals. This will allow Mitsubishi Chemical to reduce overall costs since it does not need to build and support its own facility to conduct research and development in this specific field. In addition to creating or retaining 20 jobs at the CMP Center, 10 jobs will also be supported at Mitsubishi’s development lab, located in Japan, with the agreement expected to mark only the beginning of a continued partnership featuring significant growth opportunities.

“We are excited to welcome Mitsubishi Chemical to the SUNY Poly CNSE campus where the CMP Center is providing game-changing capabilities and supporting Governor Cuomo’s leadership in promoting high-tech growth,” said SEMATECH Director of Corporate Development Dr. Ed Barth. “Mitsubishi Chemical already offers top tier post-CMP cleaning chemicals to a growing list of customers around the world, and by collaborating with SUNY Poly CNSE and SEMATECH, Mitsubishi Chemical is setting the stage to be able to supply enhanced products while it simultaneously proves that New York State under Governor Cuomo remains open for business.”

The Planarization Center plays an enabling role in SUNY Poly CNSE and SEMATECH’s process technology efforts, serving as a technology test-bed for participating companies to develop, demonstrate, integrate, and qualify advanced CMP technologies for use and adoption by the semiconductor industry. Together with SUNY Poly CNSE faculty researchers and other Centers that are being established by SUNY Poly CNSE and SEMATECH, the Planarization Center will drive technical excellence and reduce total ownership costs as next-generation technology is developed. Already, the CMP Center has seen significant interest from leading corporations within the CMP sector.

“We are incredibly proud of this one of a kind center that focuses on advanced materials development and leverages globally recognized semiconductor consortia, state of the art nanofabrication facilities, and world class faculty research scientists, all made possible through Governor Andrew Cuomo’s continued efforts to drive New York’s global leadership in nanotechnology research and development,” said SUNY Polytechnic Institute Associate Vice President for Business, Wafer Processing Frank Tolic. “We look forward to a successful partnership with Mitsubishi Chemical for many years to come.”

In addition to welcoming Mitsubishi Chemical to the CMP Center, SUNY Poly CNSE and SEMATECH are slated to jointly host the AVS CMP Users Group 2015 Spring Meeting on April 16, 2015. At this pioneering forum, leading researchers from SUNY Poly CNSE will be joined by scientists from a number of SUNY Poly CNSE’s corporate partners to provide presentations that will detail advances in CMP materials, consumables, and tools. For information, visit: http://www.sunycnse.com/outreach/eventscalendar/15-02-12/NCCAVS_CMP_User_Group_Meeting.aspx .

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Media Contact:

Jerry Gretzinger, Vice President of Strategic Communications and Public Relations (518) 956-7359 | jgretzinger@sunycnse.com