The things between the White Bear and Ukraine in the past two days can be said to have broken the hearts of everyone.
Anyway, I didn't open the bad reviewer of the news App, and I was stunned to watch the "real-time broadcast" of the group friends in the group.
In addition to the diving of funds and stocks, bad reviews feel that the biggest impact of this war on me is that I didn't do much work in a day, brushed my mobile phone all day, and seriously affected my code word speed.
But at the same time, there is also a cry from the industry, which is the chip field.
It is said that it is not very good to feel the "chip famine", and it has been aggravated by the War between Russia and Ukraine.
The most important of these is the rare gases represented by krypton, krypton, and xenon.
Because Ukraine supplies 40% of the world's krypton and 30% of the world's xenon, the proportion of neon gas is as high as 70%. Those things in Russia and Ukraine are likely to cause some turmoil and make their supply breathless.
And these gases play a very key role in chip manufacturing.
Put it this way, when it comes to chip manufacturing, everyone may immediately think of silicon wafers, photoresists and other things with relatively high exposure.
However, you may not believe it, in the proportion of wafer manufacturing materials, the "electronic special gas" represented by neon gas is also one of the protagonists.
Because they are the second consumable after silicon wafers.
And the role of these gases is also very extensive, bad reviewers simply take their application in the field of lithography as an example.
When these gases are ionized, they emit a laser of a specific wavelength and energy.
Then in the lithography machine, this laser is needed to remove the photoresist coating on the surface of the chip, so that a specific circuit pattern can be formed on the surface of the chip.
Among them, if the gas is not pure, or the proportion is not accurate, it will affect the effect of lithography.
Of course, what is mentioned above is actually only one of the applications of the vast "electronic special gas" of the supernatural powers. Silicon wafer manufacturing, oxidation, lithography, etching, etc., all have their presence.
It is no exaggeration to say that from the production of silicon wafers to the final packaging, there is no "electronic special gas" that will immediately stop gas.
Because of their heavy weight, they are often referred to as the "food" and "blood" of semiconductor manufacturing.
Ukraine was a famous production base for rare gases during the Soviet period, mainly producing neon gas for use as glow tubes.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, they also inherited this historical tradition and became the world's largest supplier of neon gas.
In the years of rapid development of the chip industry, because of the wonderful use of these rare gases, Ukraine's position in the chip supply chain has gradually become important.
Anyway, during the Crimean incident 8 years ago, because of the tension, the price of neon gas once increased sixfold. (Later, I found that there was no greater vibration, so I quickly lowered it back.) ）
History is always strikingly similar, and today's Ukraine is in the midst of a crackling war.
And the situation is far more severe than it was then, can you say that the chip industry can not panic?
If nothing else, anyway, Lao Mei is already a little unable to sit still.
Because according to their statistics, 90% of the semiconductor-grade neon gas in the entire United States comes from Ukraine.
If Ukraine accidentally blew up several factories, or russia took it, with a wave of Neon card American neck, tears can really only be swallowed into the stomach.
And these old America also engaged in the return of manufacturing in the chip field, such as TSMC, Intel and Samsung, companies are also planning to build factories in the United States.
If the supply of rare gases such as neon gas is really something, it can really become the "opening gift" of these factories.
It's just that the situation of the old beauty really can't represent the entire chip industry.
Because 80% of the world's semiconductor manufacturing industry is concentrated in Asia.
If we really want to talk about influence, we have to talk about Asia, which is the majority of the country, to be qualified to talk about it.
However, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association, the situation in Ukraine is turbulent, and it will not affect these chip manufacturers in Asia too much for the time being.
Because after russia's annexation of Crimea, the neon gas has risen sharply, and everyone has already eaten a long and wise, either hoarding goods in advance or having found a spare tire.
Anyway, the president of Samsung and the spokesperson for SK Hynix said: We are ready for it.
Micron and ASML also roughly said: We have a lot of rare gas spare tires, Europe, America and Asia are full of our suppliers, do not panic.
Experts have also analyzed that the gas stocks of these large plants have no problems at all if they persist for 6 months.
However, if the supply is really cut off and the price continues to soar for several years, the future of the related industry is really difficult to say.
At least the neon market has long been a prophet of spring plumbing ducks, and the price has increased 4 times in less than a year.
Image from: Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily ▼
Then again, if, I mean if...
If the "neon gas" and other rare gases in our country are cut off, will we be stuck in the neck?
Seeing this, I believe that everyone will have similar questions.
However, you may not believe it, but we are really not weak in this regard.
When Ren Lu, a Chinese special gas analyst, was interviewed by the Global Times, he gave everyone a wave of criticism from beginning to end.
It turns out that neon, krypton, and xenon are actually by-products of the steel industry.
Because in the process of producing steel, oxygen, nitrogen and other gases are required to participate in a large number, so steel mills will use air separation equipment to separate and produce the required gases.
In the process of separation, rare gases such as neon gas will also be separated and sold as by-products.
That's why the companies that produce these gases are mostly steel mills.
In other words, the stronger a local steel industry is, the less its noble gas production is often too much.
And Ukraine is so bullish in terms of rare gases, that's the way it is.
Because the scale of the steel industry in the Soviet Union is quite large, the separation business of rare gases has been assigned to ukraine as a small ingredient for the big meal of the steel industry, so technically people have the inheritance of Soviet black technology.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine did not give up its old business, relying on ancestral technology to continue to import crude gas from Russia and other countries, purify and refine it and export it to the world.
Looking at our steel industry on the other hand, there is no need to say more about bad reviews.
However, in the early years, because the purification capacity was still poor, most of the rare gases were transported abroad for purification.
Fortunately, in these years, the key rare gas purification technology we have made a breakthrough, the process is relatively mature, such as Huate Gas has obtained ASML's special gas certification, 60% of the domestic photolithography gas share is also Huate.
Companies such as Kemet Gas are certified by ASML.
The same is true from the data point of view, we exported 60% of the neon gas to South Korea last year, 37% of the krypton gas exported to Japan, and 30% of the xenon gas exported to South Korea.
In a word, we are already the world's main supplier of rare gases, so this neck should not be stuck on our body.
Finally, enlarging the pattern, you will find that the supply of rare gases is actually only one of the small crises under the chip shortage in the past two years.
Because whether it is the expansion of demand and capacity shortages caused by the epidemic, or the rise in silicon prices, or the unreasonable and blind sanctions of some countries, the damage to the global supply chain...
The chip industry in the past two years has really endured too much.
On the other hand, from the problems caused by these crises, it can also be seen that in the chip, the pearl of human science and technology and industry, the global industrial division of labor is so important and fragile.
At the end of the article, the bad review jun did not say much more, only hoping that the chip supply could return to normal as soon as possible.
I also hope that win-win and cooperation can replace various sanctions and conflicts and become the theme of our times.
Author: Jiang Jiang Editor: Noodle Beauty Editor: Huan Yan
Images, sources:
Gas circle, China is already the world's main supplier of noble gases
21st Century Business Review, along with the war, chip gas suppliers are changing
Financial Associated Press, the war is raging and the chip has suffered again? The Russian-Ukrainian conflict may lead to the "haze of lack of core" once again pervading the world
Data treasure, chip a raw material to sound the alarm accounted for 70% of the world's share of rare gases have the risk of supply outages China has mature technology ( attached shares )
Global Times, American semiconductors are also stuck in the neck? Under the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the supply of this rare gas may be cut off, expert: China's technology is mature