Ashland-ACT Korea Ltd has expanded its capacity for manufacturing advanced photoresist strippers at its plant in Pyongtaek, Korea, by 35%. AAKL operates as a business unit of the Electronic Chemicals Division of Ashland Specialty Chemical Company, a wholly owned division of Ashland Inc. 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%.
The latest upgrade enables AAKL to expand its range of products to include manufacture of Ashland’s ACT(R) NE-series and BNE-series photoresist strippers and etch residue removers. ACT(R) NE products operate at ambient temperatures, are buffered to ensure process stability, and are compatible with aluminium, 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.
