The Japanese Have Been Outperformed in Only Eight Months
Highly sensitive special coatings, so-called resists, have become indispensable in today’s micro-system technologies and nanotechnologies where they are being used for the photolithographic structuring of chips and circuit boards. The mid-tier company ALLRESIST GmbH in Strausberg is a leading producer of resists for standard technologies and equally famous for its innovative new products. The company’s product CSAR 62 meets the highest global quality standards and has just reached market maturity.
Matthias Schirmer, Manager of the company ALLRESIST Gesellschaft für chemische Produkte zur Mikrostrukturierung mbH, is a man with a keen sense of hearing. In the framework of international trade fairs and customer talks he again and again listened to microelectronics companies complain about the pricing policy of a certain Japanese producer that practically held a monopoly in the production of a special high-performance resist and that ruthlessly took advantage of its unique position by letting the prizes grow tenfold in the course of four years.
Spurred by this situation (unbearable for the sector) Manager Schirmer thought of an earlier innovation project, which focused on the development of a coating with an extremely high resolution, which was supposed to compete with the Japanese top-resist. However, the work on this project had not yielded satisfactory results.
Then the time had come for Mr Schirmer and his team of engineers and chemists to try again.
Cooperation with the IDM quickly yielded the desired outcome
Nonetheless the new product development process bore a substantial financial risk for the company from Strausberg, which counts only eleven co-workers. The Grand Innovation Voucher of the State of Brandenburg made it easier for Mr Schirmer to make the final decision. “Remarkably fast and without a lot of red tape” was the application process for the Innovation Voucher according to the ALLRESIST manager.
In IDM in Teltow the company ALLRESIST found an experienced research partner. On behalf of ALLRESIST, the IDM tested many raw material combinations again and again via a process that was specifically developed for this purpose. Finally, the scientists were able to synthesise the optimised polymers, which served as the starting material for the production of the resist.
Based on the polymers provided by IDM, the company ALLRESIST produced various coating samples. The sensitivity and resolution quality of these samples was then tested with the rare and expensive electron beam exposure unit at the Martin Luther University Halle. In May 2013 it was finally done: the first large batch of ALLRESIST’s new special resist “CSAR 62” was produced. One week later worldwide sales – also in Japan – launched.
CSAR 62 – the coating that has never been seen before
The new product by the ALLRESIST team elevated the quality of resists worldwide to a level that had not been reached before. CSAR 62 boasts an excellent resolution, enormous sensitivity and extraordinary plasma etch stability. In addition, it is considerably cheaper than the product by ALLRESIST’s Japanese competitor and available anytime.
This is the reason why Mr Schirmer is not the least surprised that “businesses, institutes and universities are extremely eager to get their hands on the CSAR 62”. The sales numbers have even exceeded the already high expectations by over 30% and are now making a noticeable contribution to the overall turnover.
The guiding principle of the company ALLRESIST has best been expressed by the painter Paul Klee, who thought of movement as the soul of all things. It is this movement that has brought forth a world-class product in less than eight months.