The semiconductor industry follows the industrial law of "one generation technology, one generation process, and one generation equipment", and the upgrade and iteration of semiconductor equipment depends to a large extent on key technological breakthroughs in precision parts. Precision parts are not only one of the more difficult and high-tech links in the semiconductor equipment manufacturing process, but also one of the links of domestic semiconductor equipment "jam neck", and also support the entire semiconductor chip manufacturing and modern electronic information industry. Semiconductor parts have high precision, high cleanliness, super corrosion resistance, breakdown voltage and other characteristics, the production process involves precision machinery manufacturing, engineering materials, surface treatment special technology, electronic motor integration and engineering design and other fields and disciplines, is the direct guarantee of semiconductor equipment core technology.
The O-ring, or O-ring, is a rubber sealing ring with a round cross-section. In the semiconductor production process, hydrogen-fluoride gas often encounters high temperature. When the gas flow in a high energy state contacts the surface of the modified material, it will cause physical and chemical changes on the surface of the material, and form strong corrosion to the sealing material. Therefore, the O-type sealing ring in the semiconducting process needs to have thermal stability, dimensional stability, chemical stability at high temperatures, and low gas release, low IR (infrared absorption), low permeability and high purity characteristics. O-ring is used in single crystal furnace, oxidation furnace, cleaning machine, etching equipment, CVD, PVD, CMP fields. Key characteristics also vary from link to link, such as photoetching equipment requires solvent resistant seals, CVD requires good thermal stability under vacuum pressure, CMP requires seals wear resistance, high PH chemical corrosion resistance, wet etching requires O-rings made of high purity materials to prevent element contamination (i.e., particle formation). Dry etching requires the material to be resistant to plasma. In addition, O-rings may need to meet the requirements of tolerance to toxic dopants and reaction fluids, low compression deformation, dimensional stability, and a large operating temperature range. At present, the O-rings used in the semiconductor field mainly use FFKM (perflurane rubber), which has many key properties required for O-rings in the semiconductor field.
It is estimated that by 2022, the global semiconductor parts market size is about 59.1 billion US dollars, and according to core research data, the global fabs direct procurement of consumables and spare parts, O-Ring accounted for about 1%, assuming that semiconductor equipment manufacturers in the purchase of O-Ring accounted for the same proportion. We expect the global semiconductor O-Ring market to be about $590 million in 2022. Due to the small market space of O-Ring, and the significant differences in performance requirements of various application fields, the market is obviously fragmented, which is also the reason for the lack of research and development and production power of domestic manufacturers.