In 2018, the global electronic gas market for integrated circuits reached US$4.512 billion, a year-on-year increase of 16%. The high growth rate of the electronic special gas industry for semiconductors and the huge market size have accelerated the domestic substitution plan of electronic special gas!
What is electron gas?
Electronic gas refers to the basic source material used in the production of semiconductors, flat panel displays, light-emitting diodes, solar cells and other electronic products, and is widely used in cleaning, etching, film formation, doping and other processes. The main application areas of electronic gas include the electronics industry, solar cells, mobile communications, car navigation and car audio and video systems, aerospace, military industry and many other fields.
Electronic special gas can be divided into seven categories according to its own chemical composition: silicon, arsenic, phosphorus, boron, metal hydride, halide and metal alkoxide. According to different application methods in integrated circuits, it can be divided into doping gas, epitaxy gas, ion implantation gas, light-emitting diode gas, etching gas, chemical vapor deposition gas and balance gas. There are more than 110 unit special gases used in the semiconductor industry, of which more than 30 are commonly used.
Generally, the semiconductor production industry divides gases into two types: common gases and special gases. Among them, the commonly used gas refers to a centralized supply and uses a lot of gas, such as N2, H2, O2, Ar, He, etc. Special gas refers to some chemical gases used in the process of semiconductor production, such as extension, ion injection, blending, washing, and mask formation, which is what we now call electronic special gas, such as high-purity SiH4, PH3, AsH3, B2H6, N2O, NH3, SF6, NF3, CF4, BCl3, BF3, HCl, Cl2, etc.
In the entire production process of the semiconductor industry, from chip growth to the final device packaging, almost every link is inseparable from electronic special gas, and the variety of gas used and high quality requirements, so electronic gas has semiconductor materials. “Food”.
In recent years, China’s major electronic components such as semiconductors and display panels have increased in new production capacity, and there is a strong demand for import substitution of electronic chemical materials. The position of electronic gases in the semiconductor industry has become increasingly prominent. The domestic electronic gas industry will usher in rapid growth.
Electronic special gas has very high requirements for purity, because if the purity is not up to the requirements, the impurity groups such as water vapor and oxygen in the electronic special gas will easily form oxide film on the surface of the semiconductor, which affects the service life of electronic devices, and the electronic special gas contains The particles of impurities can cause semiconductor short circuits and circuit damage. It can be said that the improvement of purity plays a vital role in the yield and performance of electronic device production.
With the continuous development of the semiconductor industry, the chip manufacturing process continues to improve, and now it has reached 5nm, which is about to approach the limit of Moore’s Law, which is equivalent to one-twentieth of the diameter of a human hair (about 0.1 mm). Therefore, this also puts forward higher requirements on the purity of the electronic special gas produced by semiconductors.
Post time: Dec-15-2021
