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The importance of electronic materials to the semiconductor industry

In the past development, the semiconductor industry chain has become a complicated system that requires support from multiple fields. Roughly speaking, materials, equipment, EDA and other fields are all in the upper reaches of the semiconductor industry chain, and they are also an indispensable driving force for the continued development of the semiconductor industry.

As far as the field of semiconductor materials is concerned, according to a survey report of Dongguan Securities, semiconductor materials are the most segmented link in the semiconductor industry chain, with as many as hundreds of sub-sectors. Divided by broad categories, semiconductor materials mainly include wafer manufacturing materials and semiconductor packaging materials. Especially in recent years, the expansion of the scale of semiconductor manufacturing has made mainland China the fastest growing region for semiconductor materials.

But for the semiconductor material industry, there are still challenges. Especially for domestic semiconductor material manufacturers that started relatively late, in order to achieve leapfrog development, what kind of progress is still needed.

The importance of electronic materials to the semiconductor industry

The materials used in semiconductors are part of electronic materials. From a conceptual point of view, electronic materials refer to materials used in electronic technology and microelectronics, including dielectric materials, semiconductor materials, piezoelectric and ferroelectric materials, conductive metals, and Its alloy materials, magnetic materials, optoelectronic materials, electromagnetic wave shielding materials and other related materials.


Specifically in the semiconductor field, silicon wafers, high-purity chemicals, high-purity gases, photoresist, polishing fluids, targets, etc. are all well-known semiconductor materials.
In the final analysis, semiconductor materials are also a large field that has developed along with the progress of process nodes. As process nodes become more advanced, the requirements for semiconductor materials are getting higher and higher, including cleanliness and purity. If the semiconductor material grade does not meet the requirements, it will affect the performance, stability and yield of the final chip.

In other words, the quality and level of these materials directly determine the performance of electronic components and complete products.

Who guarantees the reliability of electronic materials?

Filters are one of the keys to ensuring the reliability of semiconductor materials.

PALL has a history of 75 years in the filter field. During these 75 years, as semiconductors rely more and more on electronic materials, PALL has also begun research on semiconductor materials. According to Gong Zhihua, National Sales Manager of the Electronic Materials Section of Pall China's Microelectronics Division, Pall's filters have been used in the field of semiconductor materials for more than 30 years.

The filtration of silicon wafers, photoresist, wet electronic chemicals and polishing fluids is the focus of Pall's focus. Among these different semiconductor materials, filters also play different roles.

In the production process of silicon wafers, from the beginning of crystal growth to the final cleaning process, Pall can provide a BBU blowback system, a high-efficiency slurry filter, a high-precision gas filter, and a high-precision chemical filter. A complete solution to guarantee the filtration needs of every step of silicon wafer production

In terms of photoresist, Pall's particle filters and ion purifiers can help remove particles and metal ions in the raw materials used in photoresist formulations (such as solvents, polymers, resins, etc.), and high-precision particle filters After the photoresist is synthesized, the particles can be further filtered to meet the filtering requirements of different dimensions.


In terms of wet electronic chemicals, Pall has PTFE products ranging from micrometers down to 2nm, which can meet the precision required for all current chemical production. According to reports, most of Pall's PTFE membrane raw materials come from its own membrane manufacturing plant, which further guarantees the quality of its products.

In terms of slurry filtration, Pall can provide deep filtration products with a minimum accuracy of 50nm and membrane products. These filtration products can intercept large particles in the slurry production process, reduce LPC, and reduce defects such as scratches on the chip production side. Pall hopes to ensure the service life of electronic materials by providing better filtration accuracy.

With years of hard work in different materials, Pall's filtration solutions have also been recognized by the market. It is understood that so far, Pall's electronic material filters have accounted for 40% of the global share.

Pall electronic material filter layout in China


For the rapid development of China's semiconductor industry, the development of semiconductor materials has also begun to receive industry attention, and has become one of the key directions of the development of the domestic semiconductor industry chain. With the support of national policies and the joint efforts of industry insiders, China's electronic materials industry has developed vigorously in recent years, which has also promoted the growth of domestic demand for semiconductor material filtration solutions. However, the fact facing the domestic material industry is that the filtering products that can be provided in the country are still in their infancy, and related filtering solutions need to be improved. Therefore, the domestic semiconductor material industry needs to solve the problem of semiconductor material filtering in order to achieve leap-forward progress. challenge.

To solve this problem, we must first understand the pain points of the market. Pall believes that as the process continues to evolve, the performance of the semiconductor materials used in it is also constantly improving. Therefore, being able to provide a complete electronic material filtration solution in a timely manner is a pain point in the current semiconductor material industry. In order to solve this pain point, Pall will upgrade its semiconductor material filtration products every 2-3 years and introduce a complete solution that is compatible with it.

In addition to timeliness, "production technology, application experience, safety and cost of raw material supply are also the key to the development of electronic material filters," Gong Zhihua added. From the perspective of the domestic semiconductor material market, the choice of relevant domestic manufacturers for semiconductor material filter suppliers depends more on their experience in this industry. Pall has 30 years of application experience in this area, which can help domestic related companies to improve the semiconductor material development system.

In order to meet the needs of local manufacturers in a timely manner, Pall has established a dedicated electronic material filtration team in China, including a sales team and a technical team, to serve the development of the domestic semiconductor material market. "Considering the situation of domestic customers, Pall selected personnel with more than ten years of semiconductor experience to form the current electronic materials team," said Gong Zhihua: "In addition, Pall has also established laboratories in China. The laboratory can also help customers conduct application experiments to provide efficient and optimal filtration solutions."


In order to further promote the development of localization and strengthen the supply of the industrial chain, Pall has also joined the China Electronic Materials Industry Association to actively establish interaction with local customers.

In establishing the domestic semiconductor material industry chain, Pall has also implemented its wish into actual actions-expanding production and transferring filters such as grinding fluid to domestic production, which is Pall's layout for domestic electronic material filters. Pall hopes that with this plan, the company can help the development of China's semiconductor materials industry and contribute to the progress of the domestic semico