Agency: The expansion of the European semiconductor industry faces a bottleneck in the supply of chemical materials

Research institute TECHCET said a few days ago that with the growth of semiconductor manufacturing capacity in Europe, the pressure on the supply of electronic chemicals will increase.

The agency pointed out that following Intel's announcement of building a factory in Germany earlier this year, Samsung and TSMC have recently announced their intention to expand their fabs in Europe. These activities highlight the need for a stable and reliable supply of chemicals. In addition, issues such as rising energy costs and slowing economic activity are currently affecting the semiconductor industry in Europe.

TECHCET believes that European fab expansion will require the support of additional investment from chemical suppliers, otherwise semiconductor manufacturers should be prepared to find alternative sources of key chemicals. The six chemicals considered to be at the highest risk of supply disruption include hydrochloric acid (HCl liquid and gas), sulfuric acid (H2SO4), hydrofluoric acid (HF), ammonium hydroxide (NH4OH) and isopropanol (IPA).

In the past few years, the supply chain of electronic grade wet chemicals and electronic specialty gases in Europe has been interrupted more and more frequently. The problem may get worse.

The agency believes that 16nm and below processes will be the focus of European production expansion in the next few years. For suppliers, building new facilities will better enable the manufacture of higher grade chemicals, but there needs to be predictable demand to justify such investments.