Electronic specialty gases, also known as electronic special gases, is a branch of electronic gases, the purity of which is higher than that of traditional industrial gases, and some of which have special applications. Electronic specialty gases have a wide range of downstream applications and are indispensable support materials for integrated circuits, display panels, solar cells and other industries.
The main production processes of special gases include gas synthesis, gas purification, gas mixing, gas cylinder handling, gas charging and gas analysis and testing. Gas synthesis is to obtain the crude gas product through chemical reaction of raw materials under specific pressure, temperature, catalyst and other conditions. Gas purification is to refine the crude product into a higher purity product through distillation, adsorption and other means. Gas blending is to mix two or more effective component gases in a specific ratio to obtain a gas mixture with uniform distribution of multiple components. Cylinder treatment is the process of treating the interior, inner wall surface and appearance of gas cylinders according to the different properties and demands of the carrier gas, in order to ensure the stability of the product during gas storage and transport. Gas filling refers to the filling of gas into cylinders and other pressure vessels through pressure difference; gas analysis and testing is the process of analysing and testing the composition of gas.
According to the different preparation methods and application fields, industrial gases can be divided into bulk gases and special gases. Bulk gases include air separation gases (obtained by air separation) and synthetic gases, which are mainly used in chemical energy, metal smelting, machinery manufacturing, etc. The special gases can be divided into high-purity gases, standard gases and electronic special gases. The downstream applications of electronic special gases include integrated circuit ICs, display panels (LCD, OLED), photovoltaic, LED, and so on.
The manufacture of integrated circuits involves processes such as silicon wafer fabrication, oxidation, photolithography, vapour deposition, etching, ion implantation, etc. More than 50 types of high-purity speciality gases and gas mixtures are required in this process, and each gas is used in a specific process step. In addition, a wide range of speciality gases are used in different process steps in the manufacture of display panels, LEDs, photovoltaic cells and other devices.
Depending on the field of application, special gases for electronics are subdivided into etching gases, CVD gases, dilution gases, doping gases, epitaxial gases, ion implantation gases, and light emitting diode (LED) gases.
In the global electronic specialty gases market, the specialty gases consumed by semiconductors account for 73% of the total market, followed by display panels accounting for about 20%, compound semiconductors and LEDs and photovoltaics accounting for 4% and 3% respectively. Compared with the global market, China has a global leading scale advantage in the field of panels and photovoltaic, etc. Therefore, the structure of electronic specialty gases consumption shows a difference with the world, with the semiconductor market accounting for 42%, panel display accounting for 37%, in addition to photovoltaic accounting for 13%, compound semiconductor and LED accounting for 8%. As China increases the development of integrated circuits and other semiconductor industries, the intensive construction of major wafer production capacity, release, China’s semiconductor specialty gas demand is rapidly expanding, the market development space is huge.
According to the Semiconductor Association statistics, China’s electronic specialty gases market from 2010 to 2020 continued to grow, 2020 market size reached 17.4 billion yuan. In recent years, affected by the transfer of semiconductor and display industries to mainland China, the rapid development of the photovoltaic industry and other factors, the growth rate in 2020 accelerated.
Specialty gas purity improvement is the core technology bottleneck. Integrated circuits have harsh requirements for the purity of electronic specialty gases, because in the chip processing process, a very small amount of impurities may also lead to major defects in the product, the higher the purity of the specialty gases, the higher the yield of the product, the better the performance. With the continuous development of integrated circuit chip technology, the production precision of the product is getting higher and higher, the electronic specialty gases used in the manufacture of integrated circuits also put forward higher purity requirements.
Most of the market of China’s specialty gas purification industry is occupied by foreign enterprises. Advanced IC manufacturing technology requires EG purity of 5N-6N (99.999%-99.9999%). At present, most of the manufacturers in the global market can maintain the purity of EG at 6N, while Chinese enterprises are mainly engaged in the middle and low-end fields of 4N-5N, but Fullcryo is able to achieve the purity of EG up to 6N, which has already reached a more advanced level in the international arena.
Electronic special gas separation and purification principle can be divided into distillation separation, molecular sieve adsorption separation and membrane separation of three categories. In the actual purification and separation process, in order to improve the efficiency and yield rate, will use a variety of methods for the combination, the configuration process is more complex, but also need to ensure the accuracy of the product ratio, therefore raising the barriers to research and development.
With the electronic special gas purity is getting higher and higher, the analysis and detection methods and instruments put forward higher requirements. At present, foreign electronic gas analysis has experienced off-line analysis, online analysis, in situ analysis and other stages, for the analysis of high-purity electronic gas has developed a complete test system. As China’s electronic special gas industry heavy production and light testing, so the analysis methods and instruments with foreign manufacturers have a certain gap.
High-purity electronic special gas transport for a major difficulty in the storage and transport process requires the use of high-quality gas packaging storage containers, as well as the corresponding gas pipeline, valves and interfaces, in order to prevent secondary pollution of the gas.
Fullcryo, as an excellent manufacturer in the field of electronic speciality gases, is committed to providing high-quality electronic gas solutions to customers all over the world. The company’s business scope includes:
We provide high purity electronic speciality gases, such as nitrogen, argon, hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen chloride, ammonia, hydrogen sulphide, etc., to meet the demand for electronic grade gases in semiconductor, optoelectronic, solar energy and other industries.
We provide customised gas mixing solutions, with precise proportioning according to customer needs, to ensure that our products meet the standards of different production processes and applications.
We provide gas storage solutions of various specifications, including high-pressure cylinders and liquid storage tanks, etc., together with a perfect transport and delivery system to ensure the safe and stable supply of electronic gases.
We provide design and production of gas delivery and management equipment, as well as installation, commissioning and maintenance services to ensure that our customers are worry-free in the process of use.
In the production and supply process, Fullcryo pays attention to environmental protection and safety, and provides a series of environmental protection and safety guarantee services, such as gas leakage detection, safety valves and explosion-proof facilities.
Relying on advanced technology and equipment, Fullcryo is committed to providing customers with efficient, stable and safe electronic special gas products and a full range of technical support.
