When we think of Industry 4.0 and the wave of digitisation sweeping throughout industry and society alike, we tend to focus on the technology and operational change that it brings. The electronics gases business is largely overlooked and yet entirely intrinsic to this digital revolution.
Today’s explosive growth in data is driving a newly optimised industry, as well as an enormous demand for the new technologies to analyse and leverage it. What this means is a ramp up in electronics devices and circuitry and, therefore, an uptick in electronics gases and materials demand. Smarter manufacturing processes, new memory technologies, machine learning, new monitoring and metrology technologies, and high-density packaging technologies are all in high growth mode.
This is clearly being seen in the electronics materials business, where there is not only growth in demand for these products but also an expanding portfolio of products as opportunities arise for new types of gases and ever-increasing quality and purity of those existing molecules. Helium, hydrogen, nitrogen and rare gases, for example, are arguably in more demand than ever before, while there is increasing research and development into other electronic specialty gases such as arsine, phosphine, germane (GeH4), trichlorosilane (TCS), dichlorosilane (DCS), and many others.
... to continue reading you must be subscribed
