CGP Materials Raises 8 Billion Won... Semiconductor Patterning Material Synthesis Plant Construction 'On Track'

Advanced materials developer CGP Materials (CGPM) announced on the 27th that it has secured an additional 8 billion KRW from its largest shareholder, Hanwool Materials Science.

CGPM issued the 4th series of convertible bonds (CB) worth 8 billion KRW to Hanwool Materials Science the day before. This funding is for the semiconductor patterning factory construction plan worth 42 billion KRW, signed in March last year. Hanwool Materials Science, which entered the semiconductor photoresist (PSM) and polymer business last year, has invested a total of 34 billion KRW in CGPM. Including 7.2 billion KRW for old stock purchase and 4 billion KRW for PSM investment, the cumulative investment amount reaches 45.2 billion KRW.

CGPM has secured a site of 5,470 pyeong in Sejong Special Self-Governing City. It is constructing the Sejong Campus with a building area of 3,436 pyeong. The Sejong Campus, which began construction in May last year aiming to start production within the year, has progressed over 85% of the building exterior work. Including the progress of machinery installation, the overall process rate has exceeded 72%.

The Sejong Campus will focus on producing ▲ polymer materials ▲ and monomers including PSM (photoresist) as core semiconductor patterning materials. Polymers will be supplied as key materials for photoresist (PR), bottom anti-reflective coating (BARC), and spin-on hard mask (SOH), which are essential in the semiconductor patterning process. Monomers include photoresist additives such as PSM, crosslinkers, and additives, and to fundamentally prevent cross-contamination between products, they will be mass-produced in a separate factory building from the polymer plant. For photoresists, the new factory plans to produce polymers that are core materials for high-end ArF (argon fluoride) photoresists along with KrF (krypton fluoride) photoresists, and has started developing cutting-edge extreme ultraviolet (EUV) grade polymers together with customers.

CGPM is smoothly preparing for mass production and sales within the year in line with the completion of the Sejong Campus. It has secured 28 experts with over 10 to 20 years of experience in the electronic materials business. More than 60% of the total 58 employees are specialists in electronic materials and related fields. To ensure rapid sales after mass production, CGPM has also signed strategic business agreements with numerous global electronic materials companies and specialized material firms both domestically and internationally.

Park Chun-geun, CEO of CGPM, said, "We have completed the research institute cleanroom, secured pilot facilities within the cleanroom, and established state-of-the-art inductively coupled plasma tandem mass spectrometry (ICP MS/MS) equipment capable of measuring metal impurities at the sub-parts-per-billion (sub ppb) level." He added, "We have also completed quality verification of initial sample products through global electronic materials and material companies with production bases in the U.S., Japan, and Korea."