"These products have been helping customers meet their polishing needs since their introduction in the early 1990's," stated Stephen Smith, Vice President of Marketing for Cabot Microelectronics. "For more than a decade, Cabot Microelectronics has continually invested in improving these products to meet increasing performance demands as semiconductor technology has advanced, and our customers have benefited from these improvements. We are now increasing our prices for the first time since these products were introduced so that we may continue to provide the level of service our customers and we expect. We are committed to helping our customers meet their needs today and in the future, so we plan to continue to invest in further improving these products as well as introducing new and higher performing products for similar applications," Smith concluded.

As Smith stated, the slurries in question are not new and the price has remained unchanged for over a decade or more, in fact ever since their introduction.

According to Mark Thirsk, Managing Partner of Linx Consulting LLC, a specialized materials based market research firm, the ‘Cab-O-Sperse' product line was originally developed for wafer polishing almost two decades ago and is commonly used for oxide CMP process steps that were introduced at the 250nm node.

"Both these slurries are based on fumed silica, which is a maturing technology, and showing low growth," remarked Thirsk. "Pricing can be in the $8 per gallon range."

Typically, fabs would expect mature technologies and materials to come down in price over time and are normally reluctant to accept any price rises for qualified and widely used products.

Indeed the move by Cabot to publicly announce the global price increases on mature slurries is in itself unusual as the majority of materials providers tend to negotiate prices on an individual basis with customers. Such a public tactic could be seen as a way for Cabot to secure a broad based acceptance of the price rises, considering generally perceived hostility by fabs to accept such price rises.

Thirsk believes other dynamics may be at play in Cabot's pricing adjustments.

"Silicon Tetrachloride (STC) and Tri Chloro Silane (TCS) are both precursors used to produce fumed silica, but STC is also used to make silane gas. Both silane and TCS are used to produce polycrystalline silicon (PCS). PCS is used to make both monocrystalline wafers and silicon solar cells.  The competition for feedstocks may very well be driving price increases for fumed silica," noted Firsk.