News Article
On-site fluorine supply to Asian fabs boosts safety and productivity
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.
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 has installed the on-site fluorine generating system at Hynix-ST's Wuxi fab. Two new Linde Generation-F80 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-F80 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 reliability, so we can get stable control of the process. We hope the fluorine generation system will be extended to more processes," Bang concluded.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.