Indispensable for Semiconductor Industry
Korea Water Resources Corp. (K-Water) is expanding its investment to develop ultrapure water (UPW) production technology, the foundation for the semiconductor industry. K-Water has set the goal of overtaking Japan, the world's leader, by leading technological innovation in all areas of ultrapure water, from R&D to commercialization and maintenance.
K-Water plans to develop ultrapure water technology on its own by 2025. It is also planning to establish K-Semiconductor Super Purewater Platform.
Ultrapure water is water that has been purified to high levels of specification. It is used as a key material in the semiconductor, secondary battery, and biotech sectors. In particular, semiconductors at the nanometer level cannot be produced without ultrapure water. Many semiconductor production processes require the cleaning of wafers with ultrapure water.
The organic concentration of water with a low level of purity used to manufacture beverages or process general products is about 1 to 5 ppm, but the organic carbon content of ultrapure water used to manufacture semiconductors is less than 0.01 ppm. Production of ultrapure water requires cutting-edge technology. In addition, ultrapure water requires advanced storage and transportation technologies because its properties can change during storage through reaction with carbon dioxide.
As competition for micro-fabrication technology is heating up in the semiconductor field, the market size of ultrapure water is on the rise. According to Global Water Intelligence (GWI), the global ultrapure water market is expected to expand to 24 trillion won in 2024. The domestic market is expected to grow from 1.1 trillion won in 2020 to 1.4 trillion won in 2024.
K-Water started developing ultrapure water technology more than 10 years ago. In 2013, it established a pilot plant that can produce 25 cubic meters of ultrapure water a day and has secured three related patents.
K-Water is planning to localize ultrapure water facility design technology 100 percent by 2025 and ultrapure water facility construction technology 60 percent by 2025. It is looking to install a demonstration plant that can produce 2,400 tons of ultrapure water a day at a chipmaker.