According to Reuters, affected by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the two neon gas production plants in Ukraine have been stopped, or will further aggravate the "chip shortage" and usher in a new blow to the tight supply of the automotive chip industry.
The Reuters report is not alarmist. In 2015, the domestic situation in Ukraine was turbulent, the production of neon gas was greatly reduced, and the international market was "difficult to find", and the price of neon gas soared from 750 yuan at the beginning of the year to 25,000 yuan in mid-July, which was more than 30 times higher.
On the eve of the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the price of neon gas has long been "moving in the wind" from about 600 yuan per cubic meter to 1700 yuan.
Therefore, the news of the suspension of production by two important neon gas manufacturers has been hammered, which will inevitably lead to semiconductor manufacturers to the international market to "frantically sweep goods", and the price of neon gas is entirely possible to double or quadruple!
Neon gas is a necessity in the semiconductor industry
Neon gas is a colorless, odorless, rare inert gas that does not burn or assist in combustion at room temperature. Neon gas is used everywhere in daily life, such as the filling gas in colored neon lights is neon gas.
This is because neon gas shows obvious emission lines in the red part when it undergoes a low-voltage discharge. In addition, neon gas also plays an important role in the visual illumination indicator and voltage regulation.
The doubling of the value of neon gas is also due to its application in semiconductors. In the field of chips, the smaller the process, the higher the general performance, under the premise of consistent packaging process, the performance of 5 nanometer chips is better than 7 nanometers, and 3 nanometers is better than 5 nanometers.
This requires the lithography machine to engrave the circuit on the silicon wafer more and more finely, and the circuit is engraved by the light emitted by the laser, so the light is required to be finer.
The researchers found that mixing several rare gases can emit light with a shorter wavelength under the blessing of the laser, and the shorter the wavelength, the finer the light.
Finally, you only need to adjust the type and proportion of the gas mixture to get the light that meets the requirements of carving different chips, so there are different combinations of neon gas such as argon-neon-neon mixture, argon-neon mixture and krypton-neon mixture, and neon gas has almost become a must-have in the combination!
The mainland has spent a huge amount of money to buy a lithography machine from the Netherlands, the famous DUV deep ultraviolet lithography machine is delayed for various reasons, it is reported that a DUV lithography machine can sell to 2 billion, the key is to book in advance. Among the gas mixtures required for lithography lasers, neon gas accounts for more than 96%!
Ukraine's neon gas is also related to Russia
The krypton shutdown in Ukraine is complicated because it is the product of cooperation with Russia. Ukrainian neon production is mainly concentrated in Odessa, one of the busiest ports in Ukraine, and in previous years there was the original "crude neon gas" from Russia almost every once in a while.
Neon gas is a by-product of steel production, mixed with a variety of gases, Russia simply purifies the neon gas, then puts it into a sealed tank and sells it to Ukraine, and finally Ukraine purifies until it meets the needs of semiconductor production. Similarly, the mainland's neon gas producers are also several major steel plants, such as Shougang, Baosteel, Wuhan Iron and Steel, etc.
Of course, the reason for the large production of Neon gas in Russia is not how strong the technology is, but the need for a major transformation of the plant equipment, many steel plants at the beginning of the construction of the neon gas did not fully understand, resulting in the later production capacity is limited.
The impact of reduced neon gas production on the semiconductor industry and the mainland
In fact, after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, several car companies have been affected, Volkswagen, Mitsubishi, BMW and Renault have announced the suspension of some car factories and models, the Porsche production plant in Leipzig, Germany, has stopped production, and 2500 employees have entered a standby state on the same day. There are factors that sanction Russia, and there are also the effects of neon gas and other rare gases that cause insufficient chip production capacity.
An automotive veteran said that due to the suspension of neon gas production in Ukraine, global annual automobile production will be reduced by 1.5 million units. More senior experts pessimistically believe that at least 3 million cars can only exist in the spare parts stage!
The reduction in neon gas production has a significant impact on countries with semiconductor industries. According to statistics, the mainland imported more than 4700 cubic meters of neon gas throughout 2021, an increase of 127% over 2020. Japan also produces neon gas, but the capacity is negligible, and most of it needs to be imported from China and Ukraine.
South Korea's semiconductor development is the country with the largest demand for neon gas, and in 2021, the import of neon gas was 1.12 million cubic meters, a year-on-year surge of 600%, so it was the most affected. Of course, this impact will also be transmitted to the electronics industry and automotive industry related to the chip industry.
What to do?
After the supply of neon gas was tight, countries took measures. More than 90% of the neon gas needed by the US semiconductor industry is provided by Ukraine, so after the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, it began to grab goods globally, which is an important driver of the soaring price of neon gas. Semiconductor companies are now being asked to find alternatives as soon as possible.
South Korea is the most cunning, in 2021 to perceive that Russian-Ukrainian relations may deteriorate and affect the supply of neon gas, so from 2021 began to layout the localization of neon gas, in early 2022 built a complete set of neon gas production line, the annual output of 22,000 cubic meters, but only 16% of the annual demand.
For some companies, it seems that the shortage of neon gas is not terrible, in their words: it is a big deal to raise the terminal price to make up for the loss caused by the reduction of production capacity.
Mainland Taiwan fab Li jidian was asked by the media in time that neon gas is only used when the chip laser is used, so the amount is not much, 1 bottle can be used for about 2 months, and the inventory in the factory is enough to support 6-9 months.
The U.S. electronic special gas company EFC also seems to have been prepared for a long time, from 2021 to the global procurement of low-cost neon gas, the current inventory is enough for year-round use.
Neon gas does not have a great impact on the mainland. The continent is a large steel production capacity and produces a large mixture of noble gases. More importantly, the mainland has fully mastered the purification technology of noble gases (neon gas), and has upgraded the traditional technology, with increased purity and reduced energy consumption. Now what the mainland is doing is to support the neon purification production line for the steel plant to increase production capacity.
Original: Blog post