SEMI Responds to a Proposed Global Ban on Two Critical Materials
In December 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a recommendation to place two commonly used semiconductor materials under Schedule I of the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances:
"¢ GBL (gamma-butyrolactone)
"¢ BDO (1,4-butanediol)
Both GBL and BDO can, under certain conditions, be converted into GHB, a narcotic substance that has become a drug of abuse. The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is a United Nations (UN) instrument to address drugs of abuse.
The UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), the official inter-governmental body with decision-making authority over the Convention on Psychotropic Substances, will vote to accept or reject the WHO's recommendations at its session in Vienna scheduled for March 9-17. CND members include the U.S. Japan, China, South Korea, Germany, France and a number of other important countries where SEMI members operate or have customers.
World Health OrganizationIf the CND votes to accept the WHO proposal, these substances could no longer be manufactured, imported, or used in these countries by semiconductor manufacturers or their supply chains. The impacts to SEMI members of the propose restriction would be dramatic.SEMI recently conducted a survey and would like to report that many of our members routinely use GBL and BDO as part of their manufacturing supply chain operations. Besides being critical substances on their own right, GBL and BDO are also used as raw ingredients for a number of materials, including but not limited to:
"¢ NMP (n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone)
"¢ THF (tetrahydrofuran)
These materials are all critical for manufacturing high tech products and currently have no known substitutes.
GBL and BDO are routinely used in a number of semiconductor manufacturing applications:
"¢carrier solvent in lithography process formulations
"¢photoresist
"¢antireflective coating
"¢polyimide
"¢photosensitive polyimide developer
"¢chemical shrink
"¢metal hard mask
"¢active agent in edge bead removal
"¢photoresist stripper
"¢polyimide adhesive
"¢semiconductor directed self-assembly
"¢display orientation coating products
"¢printed circuit boards
"¢level sensors
"¢flow meters
"¢thermo-controllers
"¢LCD monitors
Restricting GBL and BDO would be extremely harmful to SEMI members causing significant supply chain disruption, with far reaching impacts to business continuity of members and to the high tech industries they serve. As no known substitutes for GBL and BDO currently exist, any substantial restrictions placed on these substances by the Convention could stifle high tech manufacturing across the globe and the economic growth supported by these manufacturing industries.
SEMI has aggressively responded by reaching out to government officials around the world that are part of the CND, urging them to reject the WHO proposal. To date, SEMI has communicated with government officials in the following countries (click on the link to view our correspondence):
"¢United States
"¢Japan
"¢European Union
"¢South Korea
"¢China
"¢Brazil
SEMI plans to monitor the voting of the CND and if necessary, undertake more aggressive advocacy efforts to ensure that these critical materials are not restricted.
