Asahi Glass Co. Ltd. (AGC) recently announced it will begin selling a glass substrate used in back-grinding processes to reduce the thickness of a semiconductor chip. The new substrate is reportedly indispensable for producing thin, high-performance semiconductors, leading to slimmer mobile terminals, such as smartphones, with enhanced functionality. With production launched at AGC Electronics Co. Ltd., located in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, AGC aims to capture a 50% share of a market that is forecasted to grow to ¥10 billion (~ $130 million) by 2014.

While stacking chips vertically enhances the functionality of semiconductors used in mobile terminals, the thickness of individual chips must be reduced to enable the vertical structure. These thin semiconductor chips are produced by supporting silicon wafers on a glass substrate called a back-grinding substrate (BG substrate) and grinding them to reduce their thickness to about 50 μm. Meanwhile, it is essential to control the warpage of the silicon wafers, which is caused by differences in the coefficient of thermal expansion of the wafer and the BG substrate, and can occur during high-temperature treatment after the grinding process.

For more information, visit www.agc.com.