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Cabot Microelectronics has brought 90 new jobs to the Aurora area this year when it began producing polishing tools used to improve the quality of microchips.

The 90 jobs created at Cabot include positions in manufacturing, and research and development. And that's good news during a time of layoffs and downsizing seen across many industries this past year.

Cabot, a leading supplier of chemical mechanical planarization slurries, now has two buildings in Aurora's Meridian Business Park. The company's headquarters is at 870 N. Commons Drive, where 400 employees work.

There's a good chance that the high-tech Aurora manufacturer had something to do with the design of your cell phone, television, computer, or any product with a series of microchips. Its clients include IBM and Intel.

Cabot has received national attention for its high-tech operations. Two years ago, President Bush visited the facility to talk about the importance of advanced technology in the United States.

The company creates pads that polish layers of microchips, known as wafers. The pads, which are white and smooth, are created from resin beams. The pads are then buffed and sanded down to a finite texture. Any impurity could cause a short circuit to the electronic product.

Currently, pads make up 3 percent of Cabot's overall revenue, but it's a sector of the company that's growing rapidly, spokesman Amy Ford said.

The company's polishing pads business has grown from less than $1 million in revenue in 2007 to approximately $15 million in revenue this year.

The biggest portion of Cabot's business comes from polishing tungsten in semiconductor chips seen in mp3 players, cell phones, gaming devices and digital video recorders.

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