Linde’s on-site fluorine supply boosts safety and productivity for Hynix Semiconductor
Murray Hill, New Jersey, U.S., August 13, 2007 – Hynix Semiconductor is reaping the benefits of improved safety and productivity at 300mm fabs in China and South Korea, thanks to on-site fluorine generation from Linde.
Linde entered the on-site fluorine supply market through Linde AG’s 2006 acquisition of The BOC Group, plc., which has created one of the world’s leading industrial gases and engineering companies. Hynix is a leading memory semiconductor company, headquartered in Icheon, South Korea, that designs, manufactures and sells advanced memory semiconductor products.
The Linde Generation-F® on-site fluorine generators combine proven technology with intrinsically safe design and are backed up by dedicated on-site support. This provides semiconductor manufacturers with a safe and highly reliable source of pure fluorine for chemical vapor deposition chamber cleaning.
Linde has installed the Chinese electronics industry’s first on-site fluorine generating system at Hynix-ST’s Wuxi fab. Two new Linde Generation-F®80 systems give Hynix a fully redundant supply of fluorine, eliminating the need to keep fluorine cylinders on site.
Linde also recently installed and commissioned a Generation-F®80 system at Hynix’s R3 facility in Icheon. In all, Linde Electronics has supplied and is operating five on-site fluorine generators for Hynix, including two units at their M10 fab, also in Icheon, which has operated without shutdown since 2004.
YB Bang, manager of Hynix’s M10 Fab, says on-site fluorine generation has reduced tool periodic maintenance times, which improves their production efficiency.
“The convenience of fluorine generation is that it removes the need to check up on and change gas cylinders and has improved the safety of our operations,” Bang said.
“Fluorine on-site generation has shown 100 percent reliability, so we can get stable control of the process. We hope the fluorine generation system will be extended to more processes,” Bang said.
Including those at Hynix, Linde has supplied and operates over 25 Generation-F® systems worldwide, supplying the semiconductor and display industries’ chamber cleaning needs.
Noel Leeson, president, Linde Electronics, says operators of thermal CVD furnaces are increasingly turning to on-site generated fluorine as an alternative to compressed cylinder fluorine or other sources of elemental fluorine such as NF3.
“The Linde Generation-F® systems provide high purity gas, generated on demand and supplied at low pressure. This provides safety and cost benefits, especially in regions where cylinder fluorine must be diluted or supplied in low volumes,” Leeson said.
The Linde Generation-F® system was named the winner of the materials improvement category in EuroAsia Semiconductor magazine’s 2007 product awards.
Linde offers customers around the world an extensive selection of electronic gases and related technical solutions to meet all of their needs, from research and development through to large-scale production. Visit Linde Electronics in booth #3301 at Semicon Taiwan in Taipei’s World Trade Center September 12-14, to see a Generation-F® system and discuss the benefits in more detail with company representatives.
The Linde Group is a world leading industrial gases and engineering group of companies with more than 49,000 employees working in around 70 countries worldwide. Following the acquisition of The BOC Group the company has gases and engineering sales of approximately 12 billion euros. The strategy of The Linde Group is geared towards forward-looking products and services.
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