The rapid development of special electronic gases such as nitrogen trifluoride-Yuejia Gas

In recent years, "Made in China 2025", "Thirteenth Five-Year" National Strategic Emerging Industry Development Plan, "Notice on Corporate Income Tax Policy Issues for Integrated Circuit Manufacturers" and other policy support, my country's VLSI, LCD Industries such as devices and amorphous silicon thin-film solar cells are developing rapidly. At the same time, the growth of fluorine-containing special electronic gases with the rapid development of these industries is also very impressive.

Commonly used fluorine-containing special electronic gases are sulfur hexafluoride (sf6), tungsten hexafluoride (WF6), carbon tetrafluoride (CF4), trifluoromethane (CHF3), nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), hexafluoroethane Alkane (C2F6) and octafluoropropane (C3F8) and so on.

Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), as a type of fluorine-containing special gas, is the electronic special gas product with the largest market capacity. It is chemically inert at room temperature, and is more active than oxygen and more stable than fluorine at high temperatures, and is easy to handle.

Nitrogen trifluoride is mainly used as a plasma etching gas and a cleaning agent for the reaction chamber, and is suitable for manufacturing fields such as semiconductor chips, flat panel displays, optical fibers, and photovoltaic cells.

Compared with other fluorine-containing electron gases, nitrogen trifluoride has the advantages of fast reaction and high efficiency. Especially in the etching of silicon-containing materials such as silicon nitride, it has a higher etching rate and selectivity. It does not leave any residue on the surface, it is also a very good cleaning agent, and it does not pollute the surface, which can meet the needs of the processing process.

The main production processes of nitrogen fluoride are chemical method and molten salt electrolysis. Among them, the chemical synthesis method has high safety, but has the disadvantages of complex equipment and high impurity content; the electrolysis method is easier to obtain high-purity products, but there is a certain amount of waste and pollution.

At present, most Japanese and domestic manufacturers of high-purity nitrogen trifluoride use the NH4H fluorine gas molten salt electrolysis method, while European and American countries generally use the direct chemical method.

As the production and consumption centers of the semiconductor and display panel industries gradually shift to mainland China, and the main raw materials are supplied domestically, the industrial chain structure including the two ends determines that the transfer of nitrogen trifluoride production and application to the country is a general trend.
my country's semiconductor industry and panel industry maintain a relatively high degree of prosperity. Nitrogen trifluoride, as the most indispensable special electronic gas in the production and processing of panels and semiconductors, has a broad market space.

According to data, in 2019, the global and China's demand for nitrogen trifluoride were 31,000 and 11,000 tons, respectively, an increase of 10% and 40% year-on-year. From the perspective of market competition, for a long time, the manufacturers and sales of nitrogen trifluoride have been concentrated in several foreign gas companies such as the United States, South Korea, and Japan. Its advantages are large production capacity and complete varieties, but its disadvantage is that all raw materials are purchased from China, and the production cost and transportation cost are relatively high.

Since most of the main raw materials for the production of NF3 gas are supplied domestically, and the production and consumption centers of the semiconductor industry have shifted to mainland China, this determines the trend of NF3 production shifting to mainland China in the future. With the increase in domestic market demand and the increase in localization rate, the market share of leading companies is expected to be further increased.