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Features


UNDERSTANDING THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE NEON SHORTAGE

by Geoffrey Ozin | Mar 15, 2022


Roughly 70% of neon produced in the world is used in semiconductor chip
manufacturing, and supply chain issues might cause big disruptions.


Some of you might be wondering why there is so much anxiety in the news around
the envisioned shortage of neon caused by the war in Ukraine, the world’s
leading supplier of the gas. It is not the disruption of the neon supply chain
required for colorful lighting so familiar in Las Vegas or Tokyo — which is
gradually being replaced anyway by more energy efficient, eco-friendly, and low
cost light emitting diodes.




SO, WHAT IS THE NEON SHORTAGE?

The simple answer is roughly 70% of 540,000 metric tons of neon produced in the
world is used in semiconductor chip manufacturing. This high demand exists
because neon is an essential, irreplaceable, and major component of
argon-fluorine-neon excimer pulsed lasers. Note that excimer is the abbreviation
for excited dimer — see below.

This class of lasers are renowned for their high-intensity, pulsed, nanosecond,
193 nm-deep ultraviolet wavelength output, as well as their very small
diffraction-limited spot size, pivotal for state-of-the-art 7 nm spatial
resolution photolithography. They are used mainly in computer chip production
but have a myriad of other uses, including laser weaponry, nuclear fusion,
sub-micron machining, isotope separation, and eye surgery.



To achieve the high-power pulsed output, constancy, and dependability of the
argon-fluoride-neon excimer laser required for this kind of photolithography,
the neon, which comprises as much as 95% of the gaseous argon and fluorine
mixture, must be exceptionally pure (99.999%) so as not to degrade the
performance of the laser.

As the natural abundance of neon in air is only 18 ppm, realizing this very high
level of purity requires an energy-, labor-, and cost-intensive process founded
on the cryogenic fractionation of liquified air — perfected in Ukraine. To
extract practical quantities of neon from the liquid air separation process,
plant capacities of a minimum of 1000 tons per day are required.

Ironically, Ukraine being a major producer of wheat for the world requires large
amounts of nitrogen to produce fertilizer, and the neon turns out to be a highly
valuable by-product of the liquid air nitrogen-oxygen separations process for
the Haber-Bosch ammonia process.

Notably, two Ukrainian companies, Ingas and Cryoin, are responsible for the
production of around 50% of the global supply of semiconductor grade neon for
chip-making excimer lasers. Puzzling is why this kind of excimer laser is so
hungry for neon, as one imagines the active argon-fluorine-neon gaseous blend
contained in the laser cavity would not be consumed.

This is where the neon supply chain conundrum lies. To appreciate the origin of
its vast and incessant usage requires an understanding of the chemistry and
physics underpinning the operation of the excimer laser. This is a family of
high-intensity ultraviolet pulsed gas lasers. The origin of the light emission
is from a rare gas-halogen electrical discharge, the elemental composition of
which determines the wavelength of the laser emission.

In a simplified description of a complex process, specifically in the case of
the argon-fluorine-neon excimer laser, a pulsed electrical or electron induced
discharge causes ionization and dissociation processes in the high-pressure
gaseous mixture of argon, fluorine, and neon that results in an excited
transient (ArF)* excimer state according to the reaction equation:

2Ar + F2 → 2(ArF)* → 2Ar + F2 + hv (λ = 193 nm)

Three body collisions between argon and fluorine ions and neon create the
excited (ArF)* dimer molecule, which subsequently relaxes radiatively and
concurrently emits an intense pulse of deep ultraviolet photons centered at 193
nm. These ultraviolet photons, housed between reflective end-mirrors in the
laser cavity, induce stimulated emission of the (ArF)*. This is the process
responsible for the action of the excimer gas laser.

Aficionados of laser physics appreciate that population inversion — a phenomenon
whereby an excited electronic state is more highly populated than the ground
state — is a prerequisite for lasing action. This is the case for the excited
(ArF)* molecule as the highly repulsive metastable ground state (ArF) rapidly
dissociates into unbound argon and fluorine. This causes a reduction in the
ground state population and simultaneously an increased population inversion of
the (ArF)* excimer state.




WHERE DOES NEON COME INTO THE STORY?

Its role is to enhance the rate of formation of the (ArF)*, which controls the
overall efficiency of the excimer laser. Replacing neon with for example helium
reduces the performance of the laser, hence the essential requirement of neon in
the Ar-F2 excimer laser.

Unfortunately, because of the extreme operating conditions of the laser,
impurities are introduced into the gaseous blende from the interaction of high
energy ions and electrons with the laser cavity, causing the performance of the
laser to degrade. This contamination problem requires either venting of the
argon-fluorine-neon as waste, requiring a complete replacement roughly every two
weeks, or complex and costly purification and recycling of the gaseous blende.
It is a cost-benefit analysis for the $500 billion USD semiconductor industry.

With the war in Ukraine, the global semiconductor supply chain has been
disrupted by the destruction and/or closure of their neon production facilities,
and the market price of neon has been rattled.

Stockpiled neon by the major semiconductor industries is envisioned as a
stop-gap measure to keep chip production operational for a month or two, but the
supply chain scenario thereafter remains to be seen, as it will depend on the
situation in Ukraine and the response by other nations to find alternative
sources and supplies to handle a neon shortage.

Meanwhile, judging by the 600% increase in the price of neon caused by the
Crimean crisis in 2014, chip manufacturers, consumer electronics companies, and
investors must now contend with supply chain disturbances and cost fluctuations
caused by the dual effects of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Feature image credit: Adi Goldstein on Unsplash


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