Electronic Gas Demand to Increase as Semi-Fab Expansion Advances

A new report from materials consultancy TECHCET predicts that the five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the electronic gases market will rise to 6.4%, and warns that key gases such as diborane and tungsten hexafluoride may face supply constraints.

The positive forecast for Electronic Gas is mainly due to the expansion of the semiconductor industry, with leading logic and 3D NAND applications having the greatest impact on growth. As ongoing fab expansions come online over the next few years, additional natural gas supplies will be required to meet demand, boosting the market performance of natural gas.

There are currently six major U.S. chipmakers planning to build new fabs: GlobalFoundries, Intel, Samsung, TSMC, Texas Instruments, and Micron Technology.

However, the study found that supply constraints for electronic gases may soon emerge as demand growth is expected to outstrip supply.

Examples include diborane (B2H6) and tungsten hexafluoride (WF6), both of which are critical to the manufacture of various types of semiconductor devices such as logic ICs, DRAM, 3D NAND memory, flash memory, and more. Due to their critical role, their demand is expected to grow rapidly with the rise of fabs.

Analysis by California-based TECHCET found that some Asian suppliers are now taking the opportunity to fill these supply gaps in the US market.

Disruptions in gas supply from current sources also increase the need to bring new gas suppliers to the market. For example, Neon suppliers in Ukraine are currently no longer in operation due to the Russian war and may be out permanently. This has created severe constraints on the neon supply chain, which will not be eased until new sources of supply come online in other regions.

“Helium supply is also at high risk. Transfer of ownership of helium stores and equipment by BLM in the US could disrupt supply as equipment may need to be taken offline for maintenance and upgrades,” added Jonas Sundqvist, senior analyst at TECHCET, citing past There is a relative lack of new helium capacity entering the market each year.

In addition, TECHCET currently anticipates potential shortages of xenon, krypton, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) and WF6 in the coming years unless capacity is increased.