Preface

The 18th International Conference on Planarization/CMP Technology 2023 (ICPT2023) will be held onsite only in Kanazawa, Japan on October 31 - November 2, 2023. This will be the fourth time here in Japan since the first international symposium for Planarization/CMP Technology (PacRim2004) in Tokyo, the second time (ICPT2009) in Fukuoka and third time (ICPT2014) at Kobe.

Chemical Mechanical Planarization/Polishing (CMP), one of the most important processes in the semiconductor devices manufacturing, has been developed and improved continuously year after year, has built a certain position in related industries, and is expanding in its applied area. From the user’s point of view, technical demand is becoming higher and higher, and additional applications beyond the semiconductor area are increasing.

ICPT as an international symposium for Planarization/CMP is a magnificent opportunity to have discussions on technologies including FEOL and BEOL CMP, 3D/TSV, Fundamentals of CMP, Polishing Processes, Consumables, Equipment, Green Devices, New Applications, Metrology, Cleaning, Defect Control, Process Control, CMP Alternatives, SiC, GaN, Sapphire and Diamond. The conference provides a place where every relevant researcher and engineer can get together to discuss openly and exchange information widely. Enthusiastic presentations and discussions are expected to be on an equal footing, flat like the surface of wafer, no matter what country, organization/position and technology area he/she belongs to.

The organizing committee expects ICPT2023 will become a good opportunity for every attendee to get something new through discussing and exchanging information on CMP area.

Finally, we would like to acknowledge all the members of organizing committee, program committee, executive committee and other stuffs who brought ICPT2023 to a great success.

Conference chair: Prof. Syuhei Kurokawa (Kyushu University, Japan)
Co-chair: Prof. Michio Uneda (Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Japan)
Program chair: Prof. Norikazu Suzuki (Chuo University, Japan)