Material Insights · Understanding the Material World

Electronic specialty gases and Semiconductors

Chipmaking runs on ultra-pure gases for etching, deposition, doping, chamber cleaning and lithography lasers, a market forecast at about $6.3 billion in 2025 that grows with memory layers and new fabs; some gases come from few places, as the 2022 war showed when Ukraine's neon plants, roughly half of chip-grade supply, shut down.

Electronic specialty gases (chemical) and Semiconductors (industry): 4 relationships.

How they are linked

1. Process gases for every fab step

Physical flow · Strong · Electronic specialty gases → wafer fabs

Fabs etch patterns with fluorinated gases, deposit films such as tungsten from WF6, dope silicon and clean chambers with NF3, so without these gases tools stop; contract foundries rate them 5 of 5 on criticality, and memory and logic makers 4 of 5.

  • 5 of 5 criticality for contract foundries
  • about $6.34 billion electronic gases market forecast for 2025, up 4.8%

Three enterprise types depend on these gases, including the specialty gas suppliers themselves. Specialty gases were forecast to grow faster than bulk gases such as nitrogen and hydrogen in 2025 (5.2% against 3.8%), and more of the bulk gases are being generated on site at fabs.

Enterprise types that depend on it:

  • Contract foundries: etch, deposition and doping (criticality 5 of 5)
  • Electronic chemical and specialty gas suppliers: core product (criticality 4 of 5)
  • Integrated device makers and memory makers: etch and deposition (criticality 4 of 5)

Sources: Material Insights; Semiconductor Digest (TECHCET)

2. 3D NAND and new nodes

Transition · Rising · Memory layers and advanced nodes → gas demand

Each added layer in 3D NAND needs more tungsten deposition from WF6 and more chamber cleaning with NF3, and EUV, advanced packaging and AI chips raise demand for ultra-high-purity gases, so gas use climbs as chips get taller and more complex.

  • 12% growth in WF6 demand, 2025
  • 5% growth in NF3 demand, 2025
  • about 5% a year forecast growth of the electronic gases market, 2024 to 2029

WF6 and NF3 lead specialty gas growth. NF3 was developed to replace more damaging chamber-clean gases, and dissociates more completely, which with abatement keeps emissions low even though it is a potent greenhouse gas.

Sources: Semiconductor Digest (TECHCET); gasworld; Semiconductor Digest (TECHCET)

3. Neon from Ukraine

Shared risk · Asymmetric · Ukrainian neon purifiers → chipmaking lasers

Neon for chipmaking lasers is recovered as a by-product of steelmaking, and before 2022 two Ukrainian firms purified a large share of chip-grade supply.

  • 45 to 54% share of world semiconductor-grade neon from Ingas and Cryoin, 2022 (Reuters estimate)
  • up to 500% rise in Ukrainian neon prices from December 2021 to March 2022, per Cryoin
  • 9 months to 2 years time cited to ramp up new neon production

Both firms, in Mariupol and Odesa, stopped work after the Russian invasion in 2022, and neon prices in China quadrupled from October 2021. Taiwan said its firms held safety stocks, and large chipmakers were thought to hold two months or more, but many smaller fabs lacked such buffers, which showed how a cheap by-product gas can become a bottleneck.

Sources: Cyprus Mail (Reuters)

4. Trade tensions and localisation

Policy · Medium · Tariffs and US-China tension → regional gas supply

Fabs want consistent, qualified gas supply, and tariffs and US-China tensions are pushing gas makers to build regional supply near new fabs.

Asian fabs operating in the United States still buy many specialty gases from Asia to keep inputs consistent, while suppliers such as Air Liquide, Linde, Nippon Sanso, Air Products and Resonac expand regionally and Chinese and Korean start-ups seek scale. New fab regions therefore need gas supply built alongside the fab, as India will for the Tata-PSMC fab approved in February 2024.

Sources: Semiconductor Digest (TECHCET); ThePrint

For investors

Key learnings

  1. Electronic gas demand rises with chip complexity: WF6 and NF3 use grows with 3D NAND layer counts, and WF6 demand was expected to rise 12% in 2025.
  2. Single-region supply is the main risk, as the 2022 neon shock showed when about half of chip-grade neon went offline.
  3. Industrial gas majors gain from fab build-outs because new regions must localise gas supply close to fabs.

What to track

  • Electronic gases market and gas-by-gas growth: Demand mix and pricing power (Yearly · TECHCET)
  • 3D NAND bit output and layer counts: WF6 and NF3 demand intensity (Quarterly · memory makers' results)
  • Neon and rare gas prices in China: Early warning of rare gas tightness (Monthly · Chinese industrial gas price reports)

For policymakers

Key learnings

  1. Fab incentives need matching plans for local or nearby supply of specialty gases, which are hard to ship and qualify.
  2. Ukraine's neon came from steelmaking by-products, so Indian steelworks' air separation units are in principle a possible domestic source.
  3. NF3 and other fluorinated gases have high warming potential, so fab permits should require abatement.

What to track

  • Specialty gas plants announced near Indian fabs: Whether supply chains are being built with the fabs (Quarterly · India Semiconductor Mission, company announcements)
  • Imports of fluorinated and rare gases: Dependence on foreign gas suppliers (Monthly · DGCI&S)

India

India's planned fabs, starting with Tata-PSMC at Dholera with 50,000 wafer starts a month approved in 2024, will need imported or locally built specialty gas supply; air separation units at Indian steelworks could in principle recover neon.

Sources

  1. Semiconductors: materials and inputs, Material Insights (2026)
  2. TECHCET forecasts $6.3B electronic gases market in 2025, Semiconductor Digest (TECHCET) (2025)
  3. Nitrogen trifluoride: the chamber cleaner, gasworld
  4. Russia's attack on Ukraine halts half of world's neon output for chips, Cyprus Mail (Reuters) (2022)
  5. Cabinet approves 3 semiconductor projects worth Rs 1.26 lakh cr, among them India's 1st fab unit, ThePrint (2024)
  6. WF6 and NF3 demand expected to outstrip supply by 2025 driven by 3D NAND memory evolution, Semiconductor Digest (TECHCET) (2021)