According to Japanese media reports, Hitachi Chemical is suspected of counterfeiting epoxy resin material inspection data for semiconductor packaging. The function of this material is to prevent the wafer from being scratched or chipped. Hitachi Chemical said on Saturday that a committee of external experts is currently investigating the issue and will immediately announce the results once the company receives the report.
Hitachi Chemical is the world's second largest producer of semiconductor packaging materials with a market share of 17%, second only to Sumitomo Bakelite, which accounts for 20% of the market.
Although the specific situation of fraud is not clear, Hitachi Chemical should not be able to recall products on a large scale because semiconductor customers mostly perform quality inspections themselves, so semiconductor materials are unlikely to have major quality problems.
Toshiba, one of the customers, pointed out that after receiving the inspection fraud notice at the end of September, the company immediately inspected the products made of materials supplied by Hitachi Chemical, but did not find any quality flaws.
