Hello everyone, I am the host Chen Yanchun. Welcome to the financial news program "Listen to the Financial News". The topic I want to talk to you about today is very important. TSMC's amazing teammates are grabbing 500 billion business opportunities. Gases that semiconductors cannot live without. Listeners who want to know, follow Audience friends, please remember to read and hear. Today's guest is Lin Yuanqing, a senior reporter from Financial News Biweekly. Welcome Yuan Qing. Hello, everyone. My name is Yuan Qing. Yuan Qing is our senior science and technology reporter. The topic she gave this time is very interesting. Everyone knows that TSMC is very powerful. There is no need to discuss the National Protectorate Mountain. But it actually contains very important key materials , especially the invisible god of advanced semiconductor processes. Why do teammates say it is invisible? Because what we are going to talk about is the material of gas. So let’s ask Yuan first. Qing, please help us popularize science. Why do we need to discuss gases? How should gases be classified? You are invited to join the financial news channel. Membership supports financial news, the most knowledgeable financial media about investment. At the same time, 2024 is also the 50th anniversary of financial news. Looking back, we have accompanied readers all the way from the quarterly magazine Biweekly monthly magazine and then online and in video, but what remains unchanged is the recognition and persistence of Taiwan's values. If you cherish this common concept as much as we do, you are welcome to become a channel member or leave a message to sponsor and support us. We will continue to accompany you. Welcome to everyone. In the next 50 years, we will start with industrial gases, because in many industries, including medical food and electronic manufacturing processes, etc., there is a great need to use gases. For example, we drink Coca-Cola carbonated drinks and the gases. Even industrial gases are food grade . Or when we eat potato chips, when we open them, there will be some air in them . That’s right. Why are industrial gases so important? In fact, in the past, everyone knew It is said that Taiwan started with industry at the beginning . So at that time, our demand for industrial gases was actually very large. At that time, it also attracted a lot of foreign investment to set up factories in Taiwan to provide local services. Customers , but everyone also knows that with the establishment of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in the 1980s , Taiwan's importance in global semiconductors has become increasingly prominent. We even replaced Japan in the 1990s and became the global semiconductor manufacturing center . Under such a time and space background, industrial gases must serve the demand for semiconductor gases , which means that the rising tide lifts all boats , which makes the importance of semiconductor gases more and more important in the time and space background at that time. But Why are you starting to pay attention to semiconductor gases now? Because thanks to AI, the emergence of OpenAI has made everyone feel that AI has unlimited imagination in the future. If we continue to develop more in the future, it will be very fancy. Some AI functions will rely on more advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes . Then I would like to come back and ask Yuan Qing to explain how semiconductor gases are classified, because we don’t understand them. Does every semiconductor process require gases? So how do we distinguish among the semiconductor gases which are higher-order and which are more common ? In fact, in the four key processes of semiconductors, such as thin film deposition , yellow light , etching and diffusion, semiconductors are actually required. Gases and even the later stages of packaging actually require the use of so-called semiconductor gases. So to understand this, we can simply tell the audience that semiconductor gases are basically divided into two categories. One is bulk gas and the other is special gas. Then it is The semiconductor manufacturing process includes five important ones. The thin film deposition, yellow photo etching, diffusion and packaging all require various gases. TSMC 18 factory also had a gas pollution incident before, which also greatly affected the yield rate . Although gas is invisible , it is very critical to the semiconductor manufacturing process. Do you know that gas is actually invisible ? In addition to not being able to do reverse engineering, its purity is actually very important to the semiconductor manufacturing process. In fact, it is very important . In fact, we have visited many manufacturers this time . They all have a consensus that as the process of semiconductors becomes more and more advanced, the purity of gases must also be improved. In the past , maybe everyone was concerned about semiconductor gases. The purity may be lower than 6 9's, but as the nanometer process becomes more advanced, its purity may need to be improved from the current 6 9's to 9 9's. It's hard to imagine how high the purity will be . Last time we I once interviewed Lin Shuhong, the CEO of Changchun, and he said that if a glass of pure water has 6 9s or 7 9s, the purity will be basically destroyed if it is placed in normal air for 1 second. This means that the purification technology must be very strong, and the packaging and transportation process must also be very strong. You must be very careful when using it, because its purity will determine the yield of the semiconductor manufacturing process. So in fact, in addition to having very high In addition to advanced semiconductor process equipment, it actually needs to be matched with high-purity gases. Does the semiconductor gas account for a high or low cost of the entire semiconductor process ? The semiconductor gas accounts for 13% of the semiconductor manufacturing cost. What is the concept of 13%? We know that the number one material cost of semiconductors is silicon wafer , which accounts for about 37%. So the gas part is the second highest after silicon wafer. It accounts for 13% of the cost . Now everyone knows that the demand in the semiconductor market is very strong. As Yuan Qing just mentioned, it is not just the general products that need to use AI, but also to promote the demand for semiconductors. But we all know that the semiconductor market Semiconductor gases are growing every year. Are they also growing year by year? This time we have also found many market research agencies to make some estimates. They all think that semiconductor gases will grow in the future from 2021. by 2023 The annual compound growth rate can be more than 7% . Even by 2030, it is conservatively estimated that the global market size of semiconductor gases will reach 16.28 billion US dollars, which is equivalent to NT$, which is close to NT$ 500 billion . It also grows with the demand. So I am very curious. The market seems so big and seems to be growing continuously. It is a good business. So who are the main players? That is to say, are these gas manufacturers familiar to us? If we look at the global gas companies, the top three are Linde , Air Liquide, and Air Chemicals. These three major gas groups are Linde, a German company, Air Liquide, a French company, and Air Chemicals, an American company. So you What I mean is that in fact, the global gas market should be said to be relatively large in the global industrial gas market . About 70% of the market share belongs to these three companies. Why do they have such a large niche to oligopolize this? Market, yes, because this is about talking about the development of gas, which requires the investment of research and development equipment and manpower . Everyone knows that this research and development manpower and equipment are very cost-intensive, so in fact, if there is no corresponding The depth of this pocket is actually very difficult to cultivate a group of excellent R&D teams and can continue to purchase R&D equipment . So as Yuan Qing just said, because purity requires very strict requirements , I think this time We visited Professor Lan, a professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering at National Taiwan University. He mentioned a point that I think is worth sharing with the audience and readers. In fact, because the chemical process is a very complicated process and also involves transportation and distribution issues , many manufacturers have used it. After that, basically it will not easily change manufacturers , nor will it easily change suppliers, so this ecosystem actually flows a little slower. So in fact, it has been monopolized by the three major foreign companies for a long time. Fortunately, foreign companies have come. Taiwan Investment Bar has also made some joint ventures with some groups in Taiwan . We just mentioned Linde , which has a joint venture with Lianhua Industrial. Linde, like the French Air Liquide , also has a joint venture with the Far East Group. We have a joint venture with Air Liquide Taiwan now and we will call it Yadong Industrial Gas Company. In addition, Air Chemical also has a joint venture with Taiwan's Sanfu Chemical to create Sanfu Gas. So these major companies are helping Taiwan by planting their flags in Taiwan. Industrial opportunities have arisen. So through these joint ventures, they have also entered the supply chain of Taiwan's major semiconductor manufacturers. Because we just mentioned the issue of purity, there is also the issue of scale , so they are among the top 3 in the world. These industrial gas companies came to Taiwan to set up joint ventures. Of course, they also became a very important backer for TSMC in semiconductor gases. Understand this way , if I were not a joint venture company with these three major manufacturers, Taiwanese factories would have opportunities. In fact, this time we have sorted out several semiconductor gas companies in Taiwan. In fact, many of them are purely Taiwanese-owned. Isn’t there only three major manufacturers ? Because we just introduced it , in fact, the industrial gases in the past were compared with the framework of industrial gases. 70 % of the market is dominated by these three companies , but this does not mean that Taiwanese manufacturers have no opportunities. Especially because Taiwan is a major semiconductor town , so there are many semiconductor gas manufacturers in Taiwan. Why did it have such a chance to enter this market at that time ? Maybe we should ask Yuan Qing to share the story with us. In the past, solar energy was booming. I still remember that at that time, the polycrystalline silicon material for solar energy was in short supply , and every company was scrambling to put it into production. Those with money were still struggling. The so-called polycrystalline silicon material can definitely be purchased. But at that time, many manufacturers in Taiwan also invested heavily in expanding production to cope with the situation that demand exceeded supply at that time . But later, as time went by, Chinese manufacturers of polycrystalline silicon materials are able to dump at low prices through some government subsidies, which then causes the entire market to reverse, that is, supply and demand reverses , resulting in oversupply. I think this history is bloody. I really remember the history of Banban . At that time, I visited a lot of petrochemical manufacturers, and they all rushed to invest in the polycrystalline silicon industry. They felt that the manufacturing process was actually somewhat similar, so they entered this field. In the end, they all ended up with heavy losses. That's really it. It was a difficult industrial process in Taiwan at that time. In fact, many manufacturers , such as Power Electronics , may not be able to survive and then go bankrupt. However, in this wave of reshuffle effects, there are also Some very resilient Taiwanese companies turned a corner during such a crisis , because when these manufacturers of polycrystalline silicon materials discovered that they could actually manufacture polycrystalline silicon based on the original manufacturing process . Semiconductor gases are very much in need of silica methane and silica methane gas. So at that time, many manufacturers began to invest in research and development and actively transformed. The most classic case is the stock price performance of Taiwan Special Chemical this year. Everyone is also very impressed. In fact, it was during that wave of crisis that there were companies that survived and the current transformation is very good because they quickly put the original polycrystalline silicon process through the research and development of the team and then transformed it. It was transformed into a company that could mass-produce a gas like silica methane . Later, they slowly kept pace with the times and extended from silica methane to produce a gas like silicoethane. Now, In this semiconductor manufacturing process below 7 nanometers, the semiconductor gas that will be used is like this . In this part, I can help this audience explain a little bit why it is necessary to change from silicon methane to silicon ethane , and even now silicon propane is still being developed. Because The key to this matter is what Yuan Qing just said AI's latest advanced process , the temperature of the advanced process will rise because of its different process, right? Because as we all know, in terms of mature semiconductor process, it only has about 400 steps, but now we have reached this point. When it comes to more advanced nanometer manufacturing processes, the number of steps has reached 2-3,000. The process of these steps is lengthened. Then its temperature will continue to increase. So how do we control this? The temperature of the process is to ensure that the yield can meet the requirements we need. At this time, the gas siliconethane plays a very important role. So in other words , simply speaking, siliconethane can provide a lower ambient temperature than siliconemethane. This means that the process can be maintained at a relatively suitable temperature so that it can continue to be produced and manufactured. But I think it is interesting that the price of silicon ethane is actually dozens of times more than that of silicon methane. This is an industry. Upgrades and product upgrades , then there is also silicone and propane. Silicone and propane is used in more advanced, maybe stacking processes, which means it requires more procedures. As I just said, from this mature to advanced, a lot has been added. The procedure has been completed , so its temperature will need to be lowered. When more advanced processes are about to appear, it will need to lower the temperature even further, which will require silicone propane. The price of silicone propane is much more expensive than silicone. I think this It is a process of common progress of the industry , which means that when the advanced processes led by TSMC continue to move forward, the technologies of all its supporting manufacturers will also advance together. Of course, the value will also increase along with it. But I think it is interesting to say that it (Taiwan Special Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. ) originally came from the unsatisfactory transformation of its solar energy business in the early years , so now it has a bit of a bittersweet taste, yes . If so, this is the first one , which means that the Taiwanese factory has found an opportunity because of the transformation. I think the second one must still be affected. Is it right to benefit from TSMC's demand boost because it has expanded so many factories ? As you all know, in addition to actively expanding factories overseas, TSMC has actually placed more advanced nanometer process production lines in Taiwan. As TSMC expands Taiwan has been continuously expanding its factories. They believe that the security of the local supply chain is actually very, very important. How to do this? In addition to relying on these foreign companies to continue to invest more in Taiwan to cater to TSMC. In addition to the demand for production capacity expansion in Taiwan , local semiconductor gas companies also play a very key role . Therefore, when TSMC has such a demand for local supply chain security, it will actively cultivate it. Localized gas companies like Jingcheng and Taiwan Tehua are all gas companies deliberately cultivated by TSMC . They have now successfully penetrated into TSMC's semiconductor gas supply chain and industrial regionalization. In the process, many production chains will need to be shortened to be implemented , so they will also increase investment in Taiwan. I think these will also bring new opportunities to Taiwan , because foreign businessmen will expand investment in Taiwan. Taiwanese manufacturers will also increase investment. In fact, this time we also I compiled a table and actually gave a complete explanation. Both domestic and foreign semiconductor gas manufacturers are vying to expand their factories in Taiwan. Of course, it will also bring a lot of job opportunities. This is what we are happy to see. I want to do it next. Let me ask Yuan Qing further, because this time Yuan Qing also interviewed a very rare Yadong Industrial Gas Company. I just mentioned that it should be a joint venture between Far East Group and Air Liquide of France. So I went to interview them this time. President, what does he think of the performance of this market? In 1987, Air Liquide of France and the Far East Group jointly established the Yadong Industrial Gases. At that time, it was actually to meet Taiwan's development in the industrial gas sector . However, as the We have just been discussing the development of more advanced nanometer processes in semiconductors , so they are now actively making moves to cater to Taiwan's production expansion . How do they view the prospects of the semiconductor gas industry based on what they are doing? How much money has Taiwan invested ? In fact, from 2020 to now, they have invested more than 700 million euros in Taiwan in a short period of time. This is the plant expansion plan for semiconductor gases. According to the president of Yadong Industrial Gases, He feels that the future of semiconductor gases is bright and beautiful , because as their major semiconductor customers in Taiwan continue to expand their factories , the demand for semiconductor gases in the future will only continue to grow and not go away. The recession is like this , so in which field is it stronger? For example, the world's top three industrial gas companies, because their scale is actually too large , so they are not like Taiwanese companies , which are relatively strong when developing semiconductor gases. The development of the single gas part is because they have relatively strong funds , so they actually have the four key processes of the semiconductor we just mentioned, including packaging , and semiconductors need to use bulk gases . They all have them. Covering this field , I understand that big companies still have more resources and advantages. But I think Taiwanese companies may still have some advantages in special gases . In fact, Yuan Qing has just shared the story of Taiwan Specialization. Next, I want to talk about Changchun. Changchun is definitely Taiwan’s hidden champion. Although it has not been listed on the market , it has always attracted a lot of attention from readers and viewers. So let’s talk about Changchun. This time we also went to the Dafa Factory in Kaohsiung to take a look at Changchun. What about Changchun? We do not directly supply TSMC Gas , but this time it uses carbon dioxide to purify the carbon dioxide gas to make semiconductor grade. Can you please tell Yuan Qing about this? In fact, when they first started working on liquid carbon dioxide in Changchun, they actually wanted to do carbon neutrality. As everyone knows, carbon neutrality is now an international trend, so they wanted to capture the carbon first and then go there. After using the captured carbon to develop some applications, they discovered that they were in the process of capturing carbon. After capturing the carbon, they discovered that through some processes of purification and refining , it could actually cater to it . Now, Some of the purity requirements in the semiconductor manufacturing process are like this , so they are now starting to capture the carbon dioxide and then make it into high-purity liquefied carbon dioxide. Because as everyone knows, the gas looks very light during transportation. Gas is light , but it must be liquefied during transportation. This way it is more convenient for distribution. So I think there is really a lot to know about gases. Let us try to share with you in simpler terms that gases are actually in the semiconductor manufacturing process. It really plays a very important role. So why do you say that gas is called the blood of wafers? It is equivalent to an invisible existence that runs through all processes , but it is actually very, very important. Now if we want to move towards more advanced nanometer processes. It is not enough to rely solely on advanced process equipment, because everyone knows that equipment actually has physical limits . If you want to continue to advance towards Moore's Law , you must rely on chemical materials to break through the bottleneck . Gas plays a very important role in this because as we have been mentioning equipment, it must complement each other with the gas before it can continue to advance the semiconductor process towards more advanced nanometer processes. In addition, it The yield rate can also be continuously maintained at the yield rate required by the manufacturing process . Therefore, it is really an invisible god. Teammates , I will add one last number. In fact, Taiwan Semiconductor’s wafer foundry market share has exceeded 60%. However, the self-made rate of special semiconductor gases is less than 3%. What does this mean ? The market is still very large. Taiwan has a lot of room for improvement. I think that when the entire semiconductor industry chain becomes more and more complete, every detail is very important. What’s important is that TSMC is a collective. Of course it is the leader , but in fact the role played by each supply chain is very critical. We will pay attention to it at any time. Next, we will reply to the consortium’s response to the 181st episode of the high-speed rail congestion. The Taiwan Railway is in short supply and passenger transport is in short supply. What is the big imbalance problem in Taiwan's public transportation? Comments in the comments . Should we ask Yuan Qing to help us read this question from the consortium Zhuang Xinlin? He said that highway tolls should be raised, user pays should be implemented , and short-distance buses should not be allowed to go away. On the expressway, Yuan Qing also commutes from Yilan every day , so he should have a good feel for this distance. I think it is very important to let users pay reasonably. This should be what he said. Let’s continue. The second one is the consortium. What Akira mentioned was that Taiwan Railway commuter trains should jump and stop at each station and stop too slowly. The Ziqiang train should be like foreign tiered seats so everyone can have the concept of fast speed diversion. Is that a good suggestion? The third one is the consortium. Tea Egg Xiaoxian said that this episode is very close to life. The introduction is very detailed and in-depth. It is great . I hope these bus systems can be more integrated for sightseeing. The information interface of the official website can be more user-friendly. There are many excellent ones in China. There are scenic spots but I have no choice but to find buses , otherwise it is difficult to reach them because there are too few buses. So the coordination of this public road network is really important. In fact, the topic of public transportation in this issue has aroused a lot of response. I really appreciate everyone’s support . In fact, we will continue to find more interesting topics for you that are closely related to you. Thank you for your feedback. Today's program ends here. Thank you very much Yuan Qing for sharing. If you want to know more content, please subscribe to our channel . You also agree with our concept. Welcome to join the channel. Members will know after listening to Cai. See you next time bye bye.
