Hemlock Semiconductor (HSC) is the largest producer of hyper-pure

polysilicon Polycrystalline silicon, or multicrystalline silicon, also called polysilicon, poly-Si, or mc-Si, is a high purity, polycrystalline form of silicon, used as a raw material by the solar photovoltaic and electronics industry. Polysilicon is produ ...

headquartered in the United States. Polycrystalline silicon, also called polysilicon, is a high purity, polycrystalline form of silicon, used as a raw material by the solar photovoltaic and

electronics industry The electronics industry is the industry (economics), industry that produces electronic devices. It emerged in the 20th century and is today one of the largest global industries. Contemporary society uses a vast array of electronic devices that ar ...

History

Founded in 1961, it is owned by

Corning Inc. Corning Incorporated is an American multinational technology company specializing in glass, ceramics, and related materials and technologies including advanced optics, primarily for industrial and scientific applications. The company was name ...

and Shin-Etsu Handotai and named after Hemlock, Michigan, the location of its factory. Its current facilities produce between 30,000 and 35,000 tons of

polycrystalline silicon Polycrystalline silicon, or multicrystalline silicon, also called polysilicon, poly-Si, or mc-Si, is a high purity, polycrystalline form of silicon, used as a raw material by the solar photovoltaic and electronics industry. Polysilicon is produc ...

, ranking it among the top five producers worldwide. The company expanded with the

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese joint venture partners

Shin-Etsu Chemical is the largest chemical company in Japan. Shin-Etsu has the largest global market share for polyvinyl chloride, semiconductor silicon, and photomask substrates. “Shin-Etsu” in the company's name derives from Shin'etsu Region, where the comp ...

and

Mitsubishi Materials , or MMC, is a Japanese company. It is a manufacturer of cement products, copper and aluminum products, cemented carbide tools, and electronic materials. It is one of the core companies of Mitsubishi Group. The company is listed on the Tokyo St ...

, for a new $1.2 billion plant opening near

Clarksville, Tennessee Clarksville is a city in Montgomery County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 166,722 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tennessee, fifth-most populo ...

. Though it officially opened in 2012, chemicals were never inventoried and no product was made. The plant was under negotiations in 2011 for a further $3 billion expansion, to keep pace with manufacturing competition from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. In December 2014, Hemlock Semiconductor announced the permanent closure of the $1.2 billion

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

plant, due to adverse conditions from industry oversupply and ongoing challenges from global trade disputes. Many of the approximately fifty employees in Tennessee were offered employment positions in Michigan at the Hemlock, Michigan site or Dow Corning facilities, and the rest received severance packages. In December 2015,

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

announced that they will buy the facility, and invest more than $600 million to turn it into their 15th datacenter.

Dow Corning Dow Corning Corporation, was an American multinational corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States, and was originally established as a joint venture between The Dow Chemical Company and Corning Inc., Corning Incorporated. In 20 ...

announced that June 1, 2016 would be "day one" such that

Dow Chemical Company The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. The company was among the three largest chemical producers in the world in 2021. It is the operating subsidiary of Dow Inc., ...

will assume 100% ownership of the Dow Corning Corporation, concluding the 73-year joint venture between Dow Chemical and

Hemlock Semiconductor continues as an independently run entity with two shareholders: Corning Inc. owns 80.5%, and Shin-Etsu Chemical owns 19.5%. With the decline in market demand in 2017, HSC had to lay off 100 workers in Michigan in the first quarter of 2018. The company said it was also due to U.S. export tariffs imposed by China in 2014. An additional 50 layoffs were required in 2020 due to ongoing tariff issues and a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In 2019, HSC put $100,000 into the construction of the Hemlock Area STEM Center, which will provide kindergarten to high school students of the region with exploration possibilities in the fields of

science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is an umbrella term used to group together the distinct but related technical disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The term is typically used in the context of ...

(STEM). In September 2020, Hemlock announced they had acquired

DuPont Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to: People * Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...

’s

trichlorosilane Trichlorosilane (TCS) is an inorganic compound with the formula HCl3Si. It is a colourless, volatile liquid. Purified trichlorosilane is the principal precursor to ultrapure silicon in the semiconductor industry. In water, it rapidly decomposes ...

(TCS) business, which includes the TCS manufacturing facility in

Midland, Michigan Midland is a city in Midland County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The population was 42,547 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Midland metropolitan statistical area, part of the larger Saginaw-Midland-Bay City ...

. The company broke ground on its $375 million Next Generation Finishing project in October 2022. The expansion project is designed to modernize HSC's polysilicon manufacturing processes and is expected to create up to 170 new jobs. With locating the new facility in Thomas Township, it received additional support from a $27 million Strategic Site Rediness Program (SSRP) grant provided by the Michigan Strategic Fund the Saginaw Township also received help for the project from the legislative to the amount of $10 million. HSC provides the youth engineering program scholarship at

Michigan Tech Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech, MTU, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Houghton, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School, the first post-secondary institution in the Uppe ...

. 2023 marked the 13th year that it has been available for application, and 30 full scholarships were provided for the summer engineering program July 23 to 28, 2023.

References

{{Authority control Semiconductor companies of the United States Silicon wafer producers Manufacturing companies based in Michigan Corning Inc. Dow Chemical Company Science and technology in Michigan Economy of Clarksville, Tennessee Manufacturing companies established in 1961 1961 establishments in Michigan Defunct manufacturing companies based in Tennessee

History

See also

References