BUILDING ON THE PAST, READY FOR THE FUTURE: - MEMC

MEMC’s Pasadena plant, 2007.
with a layer of silicon dioxide serving as an insulator
between layers of silicon, providing a substrate
for microcircuits that operate on reduced power
consumption. The quick response microcircuit
worked well in advanced devices such as laptops
or hand-held computers and portable telephones.
SOI wafers are energy efficient and eliminated
the need for heavy batteries previously required
for portable devices. SOI technology is currently
a major component of some high-speed network
services and direct-link entertainment devices.
JoInt venture—Pasadena, texas
Back in 1984, MEMC entered into a joint venture
agreement with Ethyl Corporation to develop
a process for making granular polysilicon.
Ethyl Corporation operated the pilot plant,
located in Pasadena, Texas. Then in July of 1995,
MEMC purchased the production facility from
Albemarle, a company that Ethyl Corporation
had spun off its specialty chemical business in
years prior, and established MEMC Pasadena. The
acquisition of the Albemarle facility in Pasadena
shored up the security of MEMC’s supply for
polysilicon. When polysilicon was in tight
supply in the mid-1990s, MEMC was producing
more than half of its polysilicon internally and
was also able to purchase from Hüls some of the
raw material needed to make chunk polysilicon.
Strengthening the internal supply chain with
granular polysilicon provided MEMC with “a
A Global Company 55