Since the trade dispute between Japan and South Korea, the Japanese government has decided to ban the export of three important semiconductor and display panel materials to South Korea since early July 2019, forcing Korean companies to embark on an independent road. According to South Korea's "Korean Daily" report, South Korea's panel maker LG has confirmed that its panel factory has completed the use of domestic hydrogen fluoride materials to replace Japanese imports. At present, the domestic self-made rate of hydrogen fluoride reaches 100%.
In fact, high-purity industrial grade hydrogen fluoride is a special chemical. It is mainly used to remove unnecessary chemicals in chemical vapor deposition furnaces in semiconductor manufacturing processes. It is a very important raw material in semiconductor production. It has a high proportion of market share in this area. However, compared to the high-purity industrial grade hydrogen fluoride used in the semiconductor manufacturing process, the purity of hydrogen fluoride used in the panel etching and cleaning process in the panel industry is low, although Korean manufacturers have always relied on Japanese imports. However, relatively difficult to produce, it is relatively easy to localize.
The report pointed out that just after Japan issued export restrictions, the hydrogen fluoride material exported to South Korea in August fell to zero. However, this did not affect the wafer and panel production of Hanxin companies such as Samsung, SK Hynix and LG. Instead, these companies are using stocks that have been in stock for three to five months, and are actively pursuing domestic alternatives. Today, LG has announced a successful domestic replacement of hydrogen fluoride.
The report further stated that the previous LG replacement was mainly gaseous hydrogen fluoride, and the more difficult domestic replacement of liquid hydrogen fluoride was also successful. On the 14th, LG's LGD company said that the liquid hydrogen fluoride used in the panel production process has been completely replaced with Korean products in the near future, and the imported products produced by Japanese companies will no longer be used in the future.
However, compared with LG, Samsung and SK Hynix are actively working on the replacement of Japanese materials. However, the main products of these two products are semiconductor wafers, which are more dependent on Japanese hydrogen fluoride and two other materials, including photoresist and fluorinated polyimine. Therefore, it is still difficult to observe the current production capacity and replace it with Korean products.