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Company Profile

Multi-Level interconnect technology is the fastest growing semiconductor business sector. One of the hottest fields in multi-level interconnect technology is chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP). CMP is the essential technology for enabling the fabrication of many high-end devices. In 1998, the total worldwide CMP market exceeded $1 billion dollars. Recent Dataquest reports indicate that the total CMP markets in 2004 will exceed $2.5 billion dollars. In spite of this rapid growth rate, CMP technology is still fairly immature. One of the most important topics in the CMP community is the issue of standardization.

SKW Associates, Inc. was established in September of 1997 to capture the leadership position in one of the key areas of CMP standardization - standard CMP process characterization wafers. SKW adopted the CMP characterization layouts developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Wafers patterned with these layouts can be used for the rapid characterization, semi-empirical modeling, and comparison of pattern dependencies in CMP. These wafers allow the community to compare results for any process, consumable set, or equipment set in a standard manner.

Based upon the business model of "providing reliable patterned wafers for the CMP infrastructure companies," SKW Associates, Inc. was able to raise 1.4 million dollars during the period of May 1999 through September 1999. During the last five years, SKW has been able to raise its revenue to an average of $190,000 dollars per month with 26 customers in the United States, 16 customers in Japan, 4 customers in Korea, and 2 customers in Taiwan. In addition to providing the test patterned wafers, SKW has been offering various measurement and characterization supports (including profilometry, thin film measurements, defect characterization for both blanket film and patterned wafers and electrical testing).