Showa Denko (SD) recently announced that it plans to grow its hexafluoro-1,3-butadiene (C4F6) dry etching gas business significantly in the next few years.
The company said it has linked up with an undisclosed partner in Russia, which supplies it with crude C4F6 for purification at its Kawasaki plant.
"C4F6 is one of the most advanced types of products for state-of-the art, large-scale integrated circuit (LSI) processing. It enables the processing of LSIs at extremely narrow line width," the company said.
SD also said that demand growth for the gas will depend on users' acceptance of the product, and the pace of customer introductions of new 90-nm processing lines.
SD began production of C4F6 last year, and it is the first company in Japan to begin commercial production of the product.
