Until 10 years ago, helium usage in electronics manufacturing was relatively low and semiconductor factories, which process thousands of silicon wafers per day, were supplied using helium cylinders or bundles of cylinders.
This began to change dramatically as the drive to smaller transistor dimensions below 100 nanometers required the unique properties of helium to achieve specialised plasma reactions and high-throughput from equipment tools that cost millions of dollars.
Electronics usage, which represented less than 1% of total global demand for helium, grew exponentially to constitute more than 15% of the market demand today. The tail of this rapid demand growth coincided with the market tightening earlier in this decade. End-users, suppliers, and equipment manufacturers need to address the supply chain and process demand in order to achieve a market-sustainable usage.
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