Mass Production of High-purity Hydrogen Fluoride Started
SK Materials announced on June 17 that it has started mass production of high-purity hydrogen fluoride (99.999 percent), an etching gas used to manufacture semiconductors.
Korea has thus far imported high-purity hydrogen fluoride from Japan. Korean semiconductor companies were put on alert when Japan curbed exports of the gas to Korea in 2019.
SK Materials successfully developed a prototype of ultra-high purity hydrogen fluoride gas late last year and built a 15-ton production facility at its Yeongju plant in North Gyeongsang Province. It aims to increase the localization rate to 70 percent by 2023.
The company will also invest 40 billion won to build a production plant for photoresist, which is another item under Japanese export restrictions. It is reportedly looking for a site for the plant with the goal of completing it next year. Its goal is to produce 50,000 gallons of photoresist per year starting 2022.
When a semiconductor wafer coated with photoresist is exposed to light, the photoresist’s chemical properties change and a circuit pattern is engraved.
SK Materials is developing ArF photoresist, which is used for ArF (Arf) exposure equipment, and hard masks which protect patterns from breaking. ArF photoresist is a high value-added product but 90 percent of its demand is currently met by imports.
In 2019, SK Siltron acquired the SiC wafer business for power semiconductors, an essential device for electric vehicles, from DuPont in the United States and started to localize it. The SiC wafer market is dominated by a small number of companies in the United States and Europe.
At the same time, SK Group is strengthening its semiconductor ecosystem by supporting small and medium-sized companies. SK Hynix has created a win-win fund worth 400 billion won to provide low-interest loans to its partners. SK Materials established an R&D facility named the “Integrated Analysis Center” in 2019 and is preparing to provide analysis services to small and medium-sized enterprises.