DuPont and Air Products announced a 50/50 joint venture, DuPont Air Products NanoMaterials L.L.C. (DA NanoMaterials), on January 9, 2001. The venture was created to develop, manufacture, and market colloidal-silica-based slurries for semiconductor wafer polishing, including chemical mechanical planarization (CMP). Air Products later acquired DuPont’s interest, completing the purchase in April 2012.
What the joint venture was set up to do
DA NanoMaterials was a specialized industrial materials business, not a consumer product company. Its slurries were intended for semiconductor manufacturers. A CMP slurry combines fine abrasive particles dispersed in liquid with chemicals formulated for a particular polishing application. CMP uses chemical and mechanical action to planarize wafer layers during semiconductor production.
The companies said the venture began operations in January 2001. Its original announcement did not disclose financial terms. EE Times’ contemporaneous account reported plans for a Carlsbad, California, headquarters; an applications and formulation laboratory in Tempe, Arizona; and the acquisition of an existing DuPont manufacturing and formulation facility in Ruabon, United Kingdom. Those were launch-era plans and locations, not descriptions of current operations.
Ownership and the 2012 change
At formation, DuPont and Air Products each owned half of DA NanoMaterials. Air Products later announced that it would acquire DuPont’s stake and reported completing the acquisition on April 3, 2012. That transaction ended the original equal-ownership arrangement; the venture should not be described as a continuing 50/50 partnership after the completion.
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In its 2012 completion announcement, Air Products described DA NanoMaterials products for copper CMP, tungsten CMP, shallow trench isolation (STI) CMP, and wafer polishing. Air Products executive Wayne Mitchell said the acquisition would broaden the company’s semiconductor offerings and that it would continue working with customers on materials and delivery systems for next-generation devices. Air Products’ April 3, 2012 release contains the announcement.
How to read the historical market estimates
The market figures in the launch and acquisition coverage are historical snapshots, not current market measures. They also come from different dates and may not use identical market definitions.
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| Source and date | Reported figure | Qualification |
|---|---|---|
| EE Times, January 9, 2001 | About $500 million worldwide; 25% annual growth | Estimate attributed to the companies in contemporaneous coverage; it describes the market at the time, not today. EE Times. |
| Air Products, April 3, 2012 | More than $1 billion | Air Products’ stated value for the CMP and wafer-polishing slurry market at the time of its acquisition-completion announcement; not a current estimate. Air Products. |
Because the figures were published 11 years apart and their definitions are not established as directly comparable, they should not be combined or used to infer a present-day market size.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the announcement means
The 2001 announcement established a jointly owned supplier focused on semiconductor polishing materials. The clearest later milestone in the cited company record is Air Products’ completed 2012 acquisition of DuPont’s interest, which changed the ownership structure. The sources support that historical account; they do not establish the venture’s current operating status or facilities.
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