PCAS increases manufacturing capacities of electronic polymers and chemicals

 

The French company PCAS will spend US$8M within the next few years to significantly increase its production capacity of electronic materials. The main part of this investment will be focused on its Canadian plant in Saint-Jean, Quebec, and specializes in the production of low-metal polymers and complex chemicals for two growing segments of the electronic industry: the production of integrated circuits by photolithography and the organic electronic segment.

Half of this investment is dedicated to the emerging OLED, OPV, organic field effect transistors (O-FET) and sensors technologies, and the second half focusses on photolithography polymers and chemicals, in order to extend the manufacturing capacities and also keep lowering the metal level of its products, targeting a low ppt level.

The miniaturisation trend in the electronic industry, aiming at doubling the number of transistors on an integrated circuit every 18 months, is pushing the chemical industry to achieve extremely low metal levels in all electronic chemicals. PCAS claims to be among the best-in-class today when it comes to producing electronic chemicals with metal contamination at a low ppb level.

PCAS’ French site in Normandy will also benefit from this investment to increase its capacity in liquid/solid filtration and participate actively in this growing industry. With the recent acquisition of a world-class R&D centre in the Paris area in November 2016, including a pilot plant for multi-step synthesis and new cryogenic capacities for conductive polymers, PCAS sees itself as well-positioned to be a key partner of the electronic industry.