Showa Denko (SDK) has started strengthening its system for supplying high-purity hydrogen fluoride (HF), a specialty gas for semiconductor production.
In March 2015, SDK doubled the capacity of its existing HF production facility in Kawasaki, Japan. SDK has also decided to build a new HF production facility in China.
High-purity HF is used mainly as a cleaning gas in the process of producing semiconductors. In recent years, the number of cases where HF is used as an etching gas in the process of dry etching, which is called Chemical Oxide Removal (COR), is increasing.
If a semiconductor manufacturer tries to introduce HF as an etching gas, there are many technical problems to be solved to maintain high-purity of the gas, which is necessary for etching. However, SDK’s high-purity HF for COR has been successfully penetrating the market due to the company’s proprietary purification technology and achievement of long-term stability of HF’s quality in the gas cylinders for preservation.
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