interview albemarle
operators to run them, but they can manage that. For a high-purity metal-organic supplier, it’s not so straightforward. There are patents out on how to make the product; there are difficult handling issues with these types of pyrophoric materials; and a high purity cleanroom and high-quality analytical measurements need to be put in place. It’s also much more complicated from a manufacturing perspective.
Q Q
Have you set up any supply contracts with chipmakers already?
AMWe have qualified many customers, especially on trimethylgallium, which is the main demand product. We
have also qualified some on triethylgallium, which is a kind of second tier product, and we are continuing to push for more qualifications.
How wide is the range of metal organic precursors that you are offering?
AMThe plan for that is to have ultra high purity TMG, TEG, TMI, TMA and Cp2Mg (dicyclopentadienyl
magnesium) in the portfolio under the PureGrowth line. We plan to have all of those done and fully commercialised by the end of first quarter 2012. We are on track to do that. We will phase them in over time and we are right on schedule.
Q
Our industry is a global one. Are you able to supply materials across the world?
AMThat’s Albemarle’s strength. We have a long history in organo-metallic supply and we have supplied organo-
metallics to pretty much every polymer producer in the world. We are talking about nice places, strange places, everywhere. We have more than 20 people located all around the world focused in this area. We’ve dedicated some additional sales people in key regions such as
Korea, Taiwan, Japan and China. We also have warehousing; we have logistics squared away; and we know how to handle dangerous goods. We built that platform for the high-purity metal organics. We are producing these products in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and we have plans to also produce them in our facility in Yeosu, Korea.
Q Q
If a customer places an order with you, how long will they wait for a delivery?
AMWe plan to have local stock in every major consuming region in the world, so we expect to have a
week’s turnaround time – the time we get an order to the time we deliver. If it’s an order for something fancy, you’ll have to give us more time to put it in place.
Chipmakers need a guaranteed supply of materials. Why can they depend on you for material year in, year out?
AMWe’re in this for the long haul and we are committed to expanding in the right areas of the world as needed.
Albemarle is a speciality chemicals maker, and we focus a lot on quality and on customer relationships. We are not going to enter a market because we feel like it today. When we make a decision to do something we are committed to it, and we want to deliver high quality products and offer the best customer and technical service. We have that reputation in all of the areas that we are involved in.
We are also committed to expansion. We are well aware that the electronics industry may have new requirements for materials. They may slightly change what the material is – they may drastically change what the material is. We know that it might not be TMG required for the next 40 years; it may be something else. We are committed to staying with the industry, continuing to innovate with customers and innovate ourselves.
Q
Five different materials feature in the PureGrowth portfolio: TMG, TEG,TMI,TMA and Cp2Mg
30
www.compoundsemiconductor.net November/December 2011
Your rivals have increased the range of bubbler sizes over the last few years. What sizes of bubbler are you offering?
AK In the interests of getting materials to the market in a timely manner, we concentrated on the popular
sizes: the 1.2 and the 4 litre bubbler. But we have designs and are in the process of building larger bubblers for customers that request this. We are also looking at bulk refill options in the near future.
Q
Are you offering chipmakers any incentives to sample your products?
AK The reception that we have had in the market
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212 |
Page 213 |
Page 214 |
Page 215 |
Page 216 |
Page 217 |
Page 218 |
Page 219 |
Page 220 |
Page 221 |
Page 222 |
Page 223 |
Page 224 |
Page 225 |
Page 226 |
Page 227 |
Page 228 |
Page 229 |
Page 230 |
Page 231 |
Page 232 |
Page 233 |
Page 234 |
Page 235 |
Page 236 |
Page 237 |
Page 238 |
Page 239 |
Page 240 |
Page 241 |
Page 242 |
Page 243 |
Page 244 |
Page 245 |
Page 246 |
Page 247 |
Page 248 |
Page 249 |
Page 250 |
Page 251 |
Page 252 |
Page 253 |
Page 254 |
Page 255