ZEON CORPORATION (Tokyo Exchange: 4205.T) announced today that they have signed a multi-year agreement with International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM) to jointly develop new etching gases and technology targeting next-generation front-end-of-line (FEOL) semiconductor technology for 22nm nodes and beyond. This is the first development agreement between IBM and ZEON.

With it becoming increasingly challenging to advance chip performance to maintain the pace of Moore's law, IBM and ZEON engineers will be working to develop and correlate the relationship between etching gases and process solutions for next-generation semiconductor devices. Under this agreement, ZEON engineers will work with IBM engineers and research scientists at IBM's Thomas J. Watson R&D Center in Yorktown Heights, NY USA.

“Combining IBM's technical and industry-focused innovation with ZEON's strong R&D and synthesis capabilities will allow both parties to achieve greater synergies in creating viable processes for next-generation semiconductors,” said Naozumi FURUKAWA, CEO and President, ZEON CORPORATION.

Mr. FURUKAWA continued, “Working together with IBM enables more rapid development of new etching gases and provides for more intimate feedback for our R&D group. Additionally, ZEON highly respects IBM's technical leadership and its established history of successful joint-collaboration and development with industry partners.”

ZEON, based in Tokyo, is the world's leader in fluorinated C5 based gases, including its flagship C5F8 product-ZEORORA^® ZFL-58. It operates R&D Centers in Japan, USA, and the United Kingdom as well as regional headquarters in Louisville, KY USA and Dusseldorf, Germany.