Rising Copper Demand in Semiconductors Drives Plating Chemicals for Advanced Packaging and Interconnects
Shannon Davis
22 hours ago
TECHCET announces the release of its latest report, TECHCET’s 2025-2026 Critical Materials Report on Metal Chemicals, focused on electroplating materials for device interconnects and advanced packaging. The report covers copper (Cu) pillar, micro-bump (µBump), wafer-level packaging (WLP), redistribution layers (RDL), and through-silicon-via (TSV), with updated modeling that more accurately reflects Cu content in packaging, driving higher forecasts for both volume and revenue.
The global plating chemicals market is projected to reach US$1,373M in 2025, up 8.7% from 2024. Copper leads the market, split between US$489M for device interconnects and US$509M for advanced packaging in 2025. Growth is fueled by rising interconnect densities in advanced logic, demand from HPC and AI, and increasing adoption of advanced packaging*.
Industry momentum is reinforced by major investments: MacDermid Alpha launched MICROFAB SC-40 PLUS for Cu pillar plating; MKS/Atotech is building a $40M chemicals plant in Thailand; and Moses Lake Industries opened a $100M Arizona R&D facility for high-purity electrolytes and Cu plating. Meanwhile, TSMC, Amkor, and ASE are expanding U.S. packaging capacity to support demand from AI, datacenter, and automotive markets. For more details on drivers and trends in metal plating materials, go to www.techcet.com or attend the CMC Seminar, October 28-29: techcet.com to gain knowledge from TECHCET analysts and the semiconductor ecosystem.
*Copilot:
Yes—there are clear signs that leading-edge semiconductor growth is accelerating, driven by copper interconnect scaling, advanced packaging, and surging demand from AI and HPC. Photonics is also rising fast, but copper remains central to near-term logic and packaging advances.
Copper Interconnects: A Leading-Edge Signal
- Interconnect density is surging in advanced logic nodes (3nm and below), requiring more copper layers and tighter pitches.
- TECHCET forecasts copper plating chemicals to hit US$998M in 2025, split between US$489M for device interconnects and US$509M for advanced packaging, up 8.7% YoY.
- Packaging formats like Cu pillar, micro-bump, RDL, and TSV are expanding rapidly, especially in AI accelerators and HPC chips.
- Major investments: MKS/Atotech’s $40M chemicals plant and Moses Lake Industries’ $100M R&D center for high-purity Cu electrolytes signal strong momentum.
Advanced Packaging: Density and Integration
- 2.5D and 3D integration (e.g., TSMC CoWoS, Intel EMIB) are now mainstream in AI and HPC, reducing interconnect length and boosting bandwidth.
- Hybrid bonding enables sub-10µm interconnect pitches and up to 1000 GB/s bandwidth, a leap in density and performance.
- Backside Power Delivery (BPD) is emerging to free up front-side routing and improve power integrity—another sign of architectural evolution.
Photonics: Fast-Growing but Complementary
- Co-packaged optics and silicon photonics are gaining traction, especially in datacenter and networking applications.
- However, photonics adoption is still gated by integration complexity, thermal constraints, and ecosystem maturity.
- Copper and hybrid bonding remain dominant for short-range, high-density interconnects in logic and memory packaging.
Leading-Edge Growth Signals
- TSMC, Amkor, ASE expanding U.S. packaging capacity for AI, datacenter, and automotive markets.
- Glass interposers and localized Si bridges are being explored to push routing density even further.
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