As the supply of nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), a special gas for semiconductors, is tight, the supply and demand balance may collapse during the first half of the year's overhaul period, which could lead to a shortage, and this could affect domestic semiconductor production, deepening the supply instability of semiconductor materials.

According to the semiconductor specialty gas and materials industry, the supply of NF3 has recently been reported to be tight.

SK Materials, the world's largest NF3 producer, is said to be operating its plants at full capacity to meet supply while continuing to improve processes to increase production from its current capacity. Hyosung Chemical is also said to be expanding its capacity to improve the tight supply and demand situation.

Industry insiders say the current supply shortage situation is perceived as more difficult than in 2015, when the shortage was more severe. In 2015, there was also an NF3 shortage, which disrupted the semiconductor production process and caused NF3 prices to skyrocket.

The reason why the supply of NF3 is tight is because demand is skyrocketing. This is because the use of NF3 has increased due to the expansion of semiconductor production in recent years, and its use in displays has also increased recently, resulting in an overall increase in demand compared to supply.

In particular, in the case of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the cleaning process has increased due to an increase in the number of memory modules and processes, and as the production of QLED by Samsung Display and OLED by LG Display has increased, the use of NF3 has also increased rapidly.

Meanwhile, Chinese NF3, which was supposed to be released into the market at the end of last year, has not been released into the market due to a number of complex reasons, including COVID-19 and logistics disruptions. In addition, the NF3 volume that entered Taiwan from China should have been released to Korea or Japan after meeting Taiwan's demand, but even this has not been released, tightening the domestic supply of NF3.

For this reason, NF3 imports in 2021 decreased by 24.8% year-on-year, increasing domestic semiconductor manufacturers' dependence on domestic NF3 manufacturers, and as a result, the demand for expansion of domestic NF3 production companies is increasing.

Accordingly, semiconductor manufacturers' demand for long-term NF3 contracts has recently increased sharply, and prices are also continuing to rise sharply.

In addition, NF3 manufacturers are planning to overhaul in the first half of the year to maintain the safety and process stability of NF3 production based on the market cycle of 'up and down' in the semiconductor industry, but industry insiders predicted that if the market cycle outlook is distorted due to the considerably tight supply and demand situation and the supply and demand forecast situation changes rapidly, a shortage may occur.

Despite these circumstances, it is currently believed that there is no material that can replace NF3 in the semiconductor industry.

In the case of trifluoromethane (F3NO), which is being discussed as a substitute, the cleaning power is lower than that of NF3, but the high price is analyzed as a disadvantage, and even if F3NO is to be used, it is difficult to change the existing semiconductor process.It is analyzed that it will not be easy for semiconductor manufacturers to adopt it as the investment cost in the semiconductor process is increasing.

Meanwhile, SK Materials is planning to increase its production capacity by 18,000 tons per year by 2025 based on an analysis of increased demand, and Hyosung Chemical is currently expanding its Oksan plant by 2,000 tons with the goal of securing an annual production capacity of 8,000 tons.

In addition, NF3 is expected to be designated as a domestic greenhouse gas regulation target after 2024. In relation to this, SK Materials is planning to achieve zero NF3 emissions by 2024 by building residual gas treatment facilities after recovering more than 90%, and it is also known to be pursuing a plan to apply 100% renewable energy in production by 2030.

Meanwhile, NF3 is used to clean the inside of a wafer by reacting with impurities such as silicon dioxide (SiO2) or silicon nitride (SiN4) remaining after a thin film is deposited on the wafer in a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) chamber in the semiconductor production process and turning it into silicon tetrafluoride (SiF4).

In Korea, SK Materials, Hyosung Chemical, and Versum Materials are producing it, and Japanese companies such as Kanto Denka and Mitsui Chemicals are supplying it.