Advancing a new era of sustainable, high-performance semiconductor technologies and electronic components
Solvay’s essential chemistries provide the foundation for next-generation electronics, from high-purity etching to precise surface polishing. By providing ultra-pure hydrogen peroxide for critical wet processing and innovative, ready-to-formulate solutions for chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), we enable the extreme miniaturization of integrated circuits while maintaining manufacturing predictability.
Sustainability is integrated into our process chemistry through advanced cleaning gases. Our fluorine-based alternatives offer a zero-GWP (Global Warming Potential) solution for chamber cleaning, significantly reducing environmental impact compared to traditional gases. Together, these high-purity solutions ensure that as electronic components evolve, their production remains efficient, precise, and environmentally responsible.
Semiconductors
Semiconductor chip manufacturers use a variety of gases in their processes to pattern silicon wafers. After a number of wafers are processed, the process chambers must be cleaned. Our Solvaclean®, a zero GWP product, revolutionizes semiconductor manufacturing cleaning processes by using a fluorine F2-based alternative to existing gases like C2F6, CF4 and NF3. which have high global-warming potential. However, if F2 is released into the environment, it decomposes immediately and washes away with rain. Solvaclean® also uses far less gas per cycle, making it much more efficient when cleaning chambers with significant potential cost savings.
When it comes to wet etching for semiconductor wafer manufacturing, high purity hydrogen peroxide is a key chemical. As the complexity of the miniaturization of integrated circuits increases, so does the demand for ultra-pure hydrogen peroxide. Our INTEROX® Pico & PicoPlus hydrogen peroxide is specifically formulated for the electronics industry to optimize wet processing steps.
The miniaturized circuits also need an effective chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) solution that can adapt to a progressively smaller line width. Zenus® HC is one example of this. This unique, ready-to-formulate solution reaches new levels of precision and predictability by controlling particle size and regularity – helping semiconductor manufacturers resolve major defectivity issues. HPPC (high purity cerium carbonate) enables manufacturers to customize CMP abrasives and semiconductor slurries at the highest quality level.
Display and lighting technologies
Modern display technologies encompass a number of complex end-use scenarios, including OLED display glass and quantum dots. Traditional materials cannot achieve the optimized electrochemical properties required to support these, which is why manufacturers depend on LiTFSI, our cutting-edge lithium salt technology. LiTFSI offers remarkable chemical and thermal stability and advanced anti-static properties to enable the next generation of display and lighting technologies.
Electronic components – capacitors
As electronic components get ever smaller and lighter, new high-performing and cost-effective materials are required to replace existing metal. Solvay’s polymer replacements enable improved mechanical properties in electronic structural components. Our precipitated carbonates (strontium carbonate, calcium carbonate and barium carbonate) offer controlled particle size and a low level of impurities making them ideal for the production of high-performance multilayer ceramic capacitors for the electronic industry.
Solvaclean®: A Low-Impact Fluorine F2 Solution for Cleaning Semiconductor Tools
To meet the need of the semiconductor industry, Solvay developed and patented different fluorine gas mixtures as environmentally friendly gases for CVD cleaning processes.
INTEROX® Hydrogen Peroxide PicoPlus
Together with almost equally demanding purity requirements for anionic and organic impurities there are only a few companies in the world able to meet the most exacting requirements of the leading semiconductor manufacturers.
