The localization of electronic special gas meets the historic opportunity

Overview of electronic gases

Electronic chemicals are the key basic chemical materials in the electronic industry, and the development of the electronic industry requires electronic chemicals to develop simultaneously with it and constantly update to meet the needs of its continuous innovation in technology. Especially in the fine processing of integrated circuits (IC), the key electronic chemicals required mainly include: photoresist (also known as photoresist), ultra-clean and high-purity reagents (also known as process chemicals), electronic special gases and epoxy plastic sealing materials, in which ultra-clean and high-purity reagents, photoresist, electronic special gases are used for the pre-process, and epoxy plastic sealing materials are used for the post-process. These microelectronic chemical materials account for about 20% of the total cost of IC materials, of which ultra-clean high-purity reagents account for about 5%, photoresist accounts for about 4%, and electronic special gases account for about 5%-6%.

1. Definition of electron gas

Industrial gases can be roughly divided into two categories, namely general industrial gases and special gases. General industrial gases refer to ordinary grade oxygen and nitrogen produced by air separation equipment, and other types of gases of ordinary purity produced by coke oven gas separation or electrolysis. General industrial gases require large production, but the purity of the gas is not high. Special gases are gases that are different from general gases and are a general concept. It is produced and used in strict accordance with certain specifications in terms of purity, variety and performance. It is generally believed that special gases are composed of electronic gases, high-purity petrochemical gases and standard mixed gases. In addition, in the semiconductor manufacturing industry, the gas can also be divided into bulk gas and electronic gas, bulk gas refers to the centralized supply and large amount of gas, such as N2, H2, O2, Ar, He, etc. Electronic gas is mainly a variety of chemical gases used in each process of semiconductor manufacturing, such as epitaxial growth, ion implantation, doping, etching cleaning, and mask film generation, such as high-purity SiH4, PH3, AsH3, B2H6, N2O, NH3, SF6, NF3, CF4, BCI3, BF3, HCI, CI2, etc. Also known as electronic special gas.

2, industrial gas development history

The first stage: industrial gases begin to enter the commercial sector. At the end of the 18th century, scientists separated nitrogen and oxygen from the air by chemical methods, laying the foundation for the industrial gas industry. In the early days of the industry, oxygen was mainly used in the medical field, and began to enter commercial uses such as welding at the end of the 19th century. At the same time, acetylene was discovered and gradually became a commonly used welding gas, and then acetylene was found to be soluble in acetone, which made the long-distance transportation of acetylene possible, further promoting the commercial application of acetylene.

The second stage: the industrial gas industry is maturing. The invention and application of fractionation process has greatly reduced the production cost of industrial gases and accelerated the industrialization process of industrial gases. In the mid-20th century, two world wars and the use of oxygen and acetylene torch cutting technology strongly promoted the growth of industrial gas demand. At the same time, in order to reduce the content of carbon and phosphorus and improve the quality of steel products, steel companies gave up the early air injection method and switched to oxygen injection method, and the adoption of the new method increased the global oxygen production by 10 times in 1965 compared with 1960. In addition, nitrogen is also used in large quantities as an inert "covering agent", which promotes the large-scale construction of gas production equipment.

The third stage: The industrial gas industry continues to grow. The rise of the electronics industry in the 1980s boosted demand for specialty gases. Increasing consumption in traditional markets such as metal prefabrication and production, coupled with the addition of new applications in end markets such as health care, electronics, beverages and food packaging, the gas industry continued to grow in the 1990s. The energy sector has been the biggest driver of the gas industry over the past few years. Gas is widely used as an energy source in many industries, which makes gas demand continue to strengthen in the early 21st century.

3, electronic gas classification

Electronic special gases are indispensable raw materials for the production of ultra-large scale integrated circuits, flat panel display devices, compound semiconductor devices, solar cells, optical fibers and other electronic industries. They are mainly used in thin film, etching, doping, vapor deposition, diffusion and other processes. The electronic industry services a wide variety of electronic gas, a variety of uses, its classification is also more complex. Generally, it can be classified according to the amount of electronic gas, and it can also be classified according to the use of electronic gas. Many types of gases are used for manufacturing purposes. Generally, we are distinguished by gas characteristics, which can be divided into two categories: special gas and general gas. The former is a small amount of gas, such as SiH4, NF3, etc., the latter is a large amount of gas, such as N2, CDA (dry compressed air). In semiconductor manufacturing, it is necessary to provide a variety of high-purity general gases for pneumatic equipment power, chemical transport pressure media or as an inert environment, or to participate in the reaction to remove impurities and other different functions.