POSCO Achieves Domestic Production of Rare Semiconductor Gas 'Neon' Through Joint Development with SMEs

First Domestic Success in Complete Localization of Neon (Ne) Production Facilities and Technology
Expansion of Neon Production Facilities... Joint Promotion of Xenon and Krypton Localization with Small and Medium Enterprises

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] POSCO has succeeded in domestic production of neon (Ne), a rare gas used in semiconductors. This is the first success in domestic production in the neon market, which had relied entirely on imports until now, and it is significant as it is the result of two years of research and development (R&D) conducted together with domestic small and medium-sized enterprises.

On the 12th, POSCO held a 'Neon Production Facility Completion and Shipment Ceremony' at the oxygen plant of Gwangyang Steelworks, attended by Yoo Byung-ok, head of POSCO's Industrial Gas and Hydrogen Business Division, Lee Jin-soo, head of Gwangyang Steelworks, and Yoo Won-yang, CEO of TEMC.

POSCO is fostering its industrial gas business as a new growth engine aligned with the company's ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management, including promoting R&D for eco-friendly gas manufacturing technology for semiconductors last year. Accordingly, POSCO has been working with TEMC, a specialized company in semiconductor specialty gases, to achieve complete domestic production of neon over about two years since the end of 2019. Utilizing the large air separation units used for gas production in steelmaking processes, POSCO developed the country's first neon production facility independently, based on the technology of the Gwangyang Steelworks oxygen plant and TEMC.

Furthermore, TEMC refined the extracted neon using its proprietary technology and completed the full domestic production process, including the production of the final product, excimer laser gas. POSCO completed product quality evaluation through trial operation at the end of last year, and this year, the facility was completed and has entered full-scale commercial production.

The newly completed facility can produce approximately 22,000 N㎥ (normal cubic meters) of high-purity neon annually, which is expected to meet about 16% of domestic demand.

With the recent rapid growth of the semiconductor market, the demand for rare gases essential for semiconductor production, such as neon (Ne), xenon (Xe), and krypton (Kr), is also sharply increasing. The industry expects the domestic rare gas market, which was about 160 billion KRW in 2020, to expand to about 280 billion KRW by 2023, growing at an average annual rate of about 20%. However, the domestic semiconductor industry currently relies 100% on imports for rare gases.

In particular, this project is significant as the result of the 'Performance Sharing System,' a system where large corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises jointly carry out improvement activities and share the outcomes. POSCO established new neon production facilities and supply systems using existing equipment and TEMC's technology, while TEMC received full compensation for its initial investment as an incentive for successful project execution and secured long-term purchase rights for neon produced by POSCO.

Yoo Byung-ok, head of POSCO's Industrial Gas and Hydrogen Business Division, said, "We have achieved complete domestic production of neon, a long-standing challenge in the industrial gas market, through cooperation with the domestic strong SME TEMC." He added, "Through ESG management that coexists with strong SMEs, we have completely eliminated technological dependence on overseas sources for rare gases and contributed to stabilizing the domestic supply chain."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.