DISCO Business

This section introduces DISCO's business domain and environment.

Business Domain: "Advanced Kiru, Kezuru, Migaku"

DISCO has expanded its business by specializing in the most advanced fields among the processing technologies called Kiru (cutting), Kezuru (grinding), and Migaku (polishing). We believe that specializing in a narrow range of fields allows us to focus resources, leading to unwavering strength as a company. We have transcribed the Japanese names of these fields using the English alphabet to show our strong desire to make our technology the world standard so that usage of these Japanese names will become common worldwide.

DISCO Technology Utilized for Semiconductor Manufacturing

DISCO equipment and tools are mainly used for manufacturing semiconductors. DISCO’s customers are cutting-edge semiconductor device manufacturers all over the world. Kiru, Kezuru, and Migaku are universal technologies that have existed since the advent of mankind, and they support the manufacture of semiconductors and electronic parts, which are the culmination of cutting-edge technologies.

Kiru
Cutting into small pieces (dicing)

DISCO equipment performs motion control in units of 1/10,000 mm to cut semiconductor wafers* into small die while assuring their quality and suppressing cracking and chipping. In some die, one side is 1 mm or less. *Semiconductor wafer: silicon disk with numerous semiconductor circuits formed on it
Cutting so precise that it can split a strand of hair

Kezuru
Thinning (grinding)

DISCO equipment can thin semiconductor wafers to under 5 µm. It can also control thickness variation to within 1.5 µm in wafers with a diameter of 30 cm. Incidentally, the thickness of the paper commonly used in copiers is about 100 µm.
So thin that you can see your hand through the wafer

Migaku
Making a mirror-like glossy finish (polishing)

DISCO equipment polishes wafers to the degree that your face is reflected in the wafer surface. This greatly improves the material’s resistance to breaking.
Polished to be as reflective as a mirror

Kiru
Cutting into small pieces (dicing)

DISCO equipment performs motion control in units of 1/10,000 mm to cut semiconductor wafers* into small die while assuring their quality and suppressing cracking and chipping. In some die, one side is 1 mm or less.
*Semiconductor wafer: silicon disk with numerous semiconductor circuits formed on it

Kezuru
Thinning (grinding)

DISCO equipment can thin semiconductor wafers to under 5 µm. It can also control thickness variation to within 1.5 µm in wafers with a diameter of 30 cm. Incidentally, the thickness of the paper commonly used in copiers is about 100 µm.

Migaku
Making a mirror-like glossy finish (polishing)

DISCO equipment polishes wafers to the degree that your face is reflected in the wafer surface. This greatly improves the material’s resistance to breaking.
Cutting so precise that it can split a strand of hair
So thin that you can see your hand through the wafer
Polished to be as reflective as a mirror

Our Products: Equipment, Tools, and Applications

Although we sell our equipment and tools as our products, what customers genuinely seek are the processing results obtained through the use of these products. Therefore, "Applications," referring to the technology that leads to the best processing results, are also positioned as an indispensable product in our lineup.

Equipment

Our equipment processes objects to make them smaller, thinner/flatter, and stronger with an extremely high degree of accuracy.

Tools

Tools are defined as abrasive products consisting of synthetic diamonds secured in bonding materials such as resin. When mounted on the equipment and rotated at high speed, these tools process objects.

Applications

Applications are techniques for the selection of the appropriate equipment, tools, and processing conditions, such as rotation speed and feed speed, to achieve the required processing quality and productivity.

Equipment

Our equipment processes objects to make them smaller, thinner/flatter, and stronger with an extremely high degree of accuracy.

Tools

Tools are defined as abrasive products consisting of synthetic diamonds secured in bonding materials such as resin. When mounted on the equipment and rotated at high speed, these tools process objects.

Applications

Applications are techniques for the selection of the appropriate equipment, tools, and processing conditions, such as rotation speed and feed speed, to achieve the required processing quality and productivity.

Detail

Introduction of the Semiconductor Industry

What is a Semiconductor?

A semiconductor is a substance with conductive properties falling between material that conducts electricity well, such as metal (conductor) and material that conducts very little electricity, such as glass or rubber (insulator). Through the processing of a semiconductor, an element that functions as a switch can be created to control whether or not the semiconductor conducts electricity.
Numerous switches are formed on a silicon (Si) single crystal board (silicon wafer), which is the main material used for semiconductors. These switches are then used to produce important semiconductor products, including CPUs and memory chips in computers and smartphones. Semiconductors are widely used around the world not only for digital products but also for transportation devices, public infrastructure, and so on.

Industry Structure: Electronic Devices, Semiconductors, and Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment

How big is the market for semiconductor-related products? The market for electronic devices, which contain semiconductors, is about $2758 billion, while the semiconductor market is $646 billion. The semiconductor manufacturing equipment market, within which DISCO is positioned, is $114 billion.
The scale of the electronic device market is close to that of the auto industry, which is $2.9 trillion.
With the introduction of the Metaverse and the shift to EV, among other factors, new demand is being created for semiconductors, and the electronic semiconductor market is expected to expand further.

References: VLSIResearch, WSTS, SEMI, DECISION Etudes & Conseil, IBISWorld

Semiconductor Manufacturing Process and DISCO's Role

In the semiconductor manufacturing process, elements and circuits are burned onto the silicon wafer using highly accurate printing technologies.
The finest part of a circuit is a few nanometers (nm: 1/1,000,000 mm), and billions of elements can be formed on an IC/LSI chip, which is only a few square millimeters. A few hundred to several thousand chips can be produced from one silicon wafer of 300 mm in diameter.

Front-End Process

In the front-end process, elements and circuits are formed on a silicon wafer. Thin film is formed during film formation, a protective pattern is formed during photolithography, and areas not covered by the protective pattern are removed during etching. Through the repetition of these processes, elements and circuits are formed.

Back-End Process

In the back-end process, the completed wafer is thinned and separated into die. The wiring on these die is then connected to create small IC/LSI. Because the object being processed is the high value-added wafer produced in the front-end process, a high-yield rate is required. DISCO contributes to the thinning and miniaturization of semiconductors through the backgrinding process, which thins wafers, the stress relief process, which enhances the strength of the wafer, and the separation process, which cuts the wafer into die.

Semiconductor Growth Cube

Continuous expansion of the semiconductor market can be explained using the cube below. The X-axis is semiconductor use. The evolution of a wide-range of products, from rotary dial phones to smartphones, from playing cards to gaming devices, and from filament lamps to LED lamps, have been made possible through the use of semiconductors.
The Y-axis is the population that uses semiconductors. For example, the adoption rate worldwide of computers in 2019 was 50%, which is twice that in 2005 (27%). Thus, semiconductors still have room for further adoption, and an increase in demand can be expected with the increase in world population.
The Z-axis is global business climate. Naturally, this axis fluctuates on a boom and bust cycle, which may lead to negative growth for the semiconductor market in the short term. As the area of the bottom of the cube (X-axis and Y-axis) continues to expand, however, the semiconductor market will continue to experience stable growth in the medium-to-long term.

*Source: Facts and Figures 2019: International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Measuring Digital Development

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