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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsChip Makers Stockpiled Key Materials Ahead of Russian Invasion of Ukraine
https://www.wsj.com/articles/chip-makers-stockpiled-key-materials-ahead-of-russian-invasion-of-ukraine-11647167582Chip Makers Stockpiled Key Materials Ahead of Russian Invasion of Ukraine
The global semiconductor industry, already stretched, secured needed neon and palladium, but long-term risks remain
By Asa Fitch
March 13, 2022 6:33 am ET
...
About a quarter to a half of the worlds semiconductor-grade neon comes from Russia and Ukraine, while roughly a third of the worlds palladium comes from Russia, analysts and industry consultants estimate. A potential shortage of those materials has sparked concern among some analysts that an industry already struggling to meet hot demand could suffer a blow to production.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. , the worlds largest contract chip maker, ensured it had alternate supplies of neon after Russia amassed a force along the Ukrainian border, threatening a conflict, according to a person familiar with TSMCs strategy. It now doesnt anticipate supply problems, the person said.
Infineon Technologies AG, a large German chip maker that supplies the auto industry which has been hit particularly hard by the chip shortage said it didnt expect a production impact, saying it had supply options. Infineon has also increased its inventories of potentially affected raw materials and noble gases, which include neon, a spokeswoman said.
The chip industry broadly says it isnt expecting much pain. Had this happened maybe 10 years ago, we might have been in a lot more pain than we are today, said Jimmy Goodrich, vice president for global policy at the Semiconductor Industry Association, a Washington, D.C.-based industry body.
For chip companies, Russias annexation in 2014 of Crimea a part of Ukraine provided an early lesson in dealing with regional political uncertainty. Prices of neon rose, and chip makers moved to find sources of the gas elsewhere.
lapfog_1
(29,166 posts)Probably more expensive... but then I doubt much is actually used for chips. Neon is self contained in lasers... i.e. it is not leaked or consumed. At least until the laser is not used anymore.
localroger
(3,602 posts)It's used as a "process gas" to control the deposition of thin films onto the circuit wafer. These films are then selectively etched away by light focused through a mask which determines a useful pattern, forming a layer of the integrated circuit. Process gases have to be inert and they do their work via one-on-one atomic collisions, so the atomic weight of the gas is an important factor; neon is apparently favored because it is similar in atomic weight to silicon.
lapfog_1
(29,166 posts)can it not be recovered from this process and reused?
localroger
(3,602 posts)It's not that we couldn't recycle it or distill it from air, it's just that there is a certain need for it and the market forces have settled on sources that are cheapest. There's not much point building a distillery which will have to charge ten times as much if you can cheaply mine it in tons quantity from a rock formation somewhere on the Earth. Interrupt the supply from the rock formation because it's in Ukraine, and you have no backup at any price because you never bothered to build it.
roamer65
(36,739 posts)Samrob
(4,298 posts)A lot more of Russia's resources are unattainable because they are covered by ice and snow. Global warming is real. The world needs to be thinking about how that helps Russia. It might be ok if Putin were not in charge.