Mitsui Mining & Smelting to Expand Ultrathin Electrolytic Copper Foil Capacity

Mitsui Mining & Smelting announced on Tuesday the firm expands the production capacity of ultrathin electrolytic copper carrier foil by around 70% for 1 billion yen. The firm expands the capacity of surface treatment from current 600,000 square meters per month to 1 million square meters to meet growing demand for fine pitch integrated circuit package substrate. The firm starts the working in the month completing in July 2010.

The firm just finished the expansion for Micro Thin Series from monthly 450,000 square meters to 600,000 square meters at Ageo plant in Saitama by end of July. The firm decided the additional expansion to meet growing demand for the high performance foil for fine pitch circuit when the sales keep increasing in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China. The circuit gets finer and finer for high grade cell phone, portable media player and netbook type computer.

The firm starts the operation for expanded capacity as soon as the firm gets approval from the users. With the additional capacity, the firm can also develop new products and new applications for the thin products.

The firm can supply the Series with 1-5 micrometers thick, up to 1,300 millimeters width and surface variation for circuit with more than 50 micrometers pitch. The firm already developed the new products for circuit with less than 50 micrometers pitch to start mass production in 2010.