Wet electronic chemicals

What are Wet Electronic Chemicals?

As the name suggests, wet electronic chemicals are high-purity chemicals used in liquid form during the manufacturing process of electronics. These chemicals are primarily used in high-tech industries such as integrated circuits (ICs), display panels, and photovoltaic cells for processes like cleaning, etching, developing, stripping, and electroplating.

These chemicals have stringent requirements for impurity control, often needing to achieve 'electronic-grade' purity (impurity concentration typically below 1ppb, sometimes reaching ppt levels) to prevent contamination and degradation of wafers or devices.

Classification of Wet Electronic ChemicalsGeneral Wet Electronic Chemicals These chemicals are characterized by their simple composition, broad application, and high usage volume. They mainly include the following categories:

Acids: such as sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid, hydrofluoric acid, nitric acid, and hydrochloric acid

Alkalis: such as sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, and ammonia water

Organic solvents: such as isopropanol (IPA), ethanol, methanol, acetone, and NMP (N-methylpyrrolidone)

Others: such as ammonium fluoride, choline, and glacial acetic acid

These chemicals are widely used in wafer cleaning, etching preparation, and processes like developing, stripping, or removing residues in photolithography.

Functional wet electronic chemicals

It is relatively complex and usually a compound product. According to the specific process requirements, it is matched and adjusted with additives, which has stronger functions and higher process adaptability. It belongs to an area with high technical barriers.

Mainly include ：

Etching solution (for different materials such as silicon, polysilicon, metal, oxide, etc.)

Cleaning agent (deglue cleaning, metal residue cleaning, sheet control process cleaning, etc.)

Developing solution (developing photoresist pattern)

Peeling solution (removal of photoresist)

Regenerant (rework liquid, metal film treatment liquid, etc.)

Functional chemicals emphasize selectivity, stability and compatibility, and have strong adaptability to advanced process nodes (such as FinFET, 3D NAND).

Application scenarios and process locations

Integrated circuit manufacturing

Front-end process (wafer manufacturing):

Including lithography, etching, ion implantation, chemical vapor deposition and so on

Use a large number of cleaning solution, etching solution, peeling solution, developing solution and so on

Back-end process (packaging and testing):

Metal wiring cleaning, etching, bump formation, electroplating, etc

Use electroplating solution (such as copper, gold, nickel, etc.), cleaning solution, etching solution, etc.

Display panel (LCD, OLED)

Used for TFT substrate cleaning, etching, peeling and other processes

Solar photovoltaic

Polysilicon slicing surface treatment, cleaning, etching, etc., consumption is large

Industrial trends and technical barriers

Technical difficulty: the electronic grade requires extremely high purity (ppt grade), and the requirements for impurity control, uniformity, surface tension control and so on are demanding.

Industry maturity:

General wet electronic chemicals technology has been gradually localized, covering 8-inch and 12-inch processes above 28nm.

Functional wet electronic chemicals are still mainly imported in advanced process processes (below 28nm), with a large space for domestic substitution.

Development trend:

The development of wafer process to more advanced nodes puts forward higher requirements for stability and refinement of chemicals.

Domestic manufacturers have strong production capacity in general chemicals, and the research and development of functional chemicals is accelerating.

Market size and future outlook

According to the China Electronic Materials Industry Association:

In 2022:

Integrated circuit front wafer manufacturing: 744,100 tons

Encapsulation: 58,000 tons

Display panels used: 788,000 tons

Solar photovoltaic: 1,052,900 tons

Predicted to 2025:

The production of front-end wafers will reach 956,500 tons

The packaging will reach 70,000 tons

With the expansion of domestic semiconductor production capacity, the wet electronic chemicals market still has a large space for growth.

Summary

Wet electronic chemicals serve as the 'process blood' of the integrated circuit industry chain. Without them, the complete manufacturing process from silicon wafers to chips cannot be achieved.

These chemicals not only determine the reliability, yield, and cleanliness of the manufacturing process but also impact cost control and product performance. In the context of the localization of high-end manufacturing processes, breakthroughs in the research and development of functional wet electronic chemicals are a crucial step for domestic semiconductor materials to advance to higher levels.