South Korea's OLED panel and storage semiconductor industry has been hit by restrictions imposed by Japan on the export of semiconductor materials, especially photoresist, hydrogen fluoride and fluoropolyimide, Money Today reported on August 16.However, a south Korean materials company in the central and southern region has successfully localized polyimide coatings and expects to reduce its dependence on Japan in the semiconductor material sector in the future.
Those familiar with the industry chain know that polyimides, which are typically used in dozens of different types of semiconductor display panel manufacturing, and that the Japanese government imposed export controls on July 4 on fluorinated polyimides treated with hydrogen fluoride.Although polyimide coatings are not included in the list, they are also likely to be included in other regulated items based on the current relationship between Japan and South Korea.
Polyimide coatings, a key material in the manufacture of FCCL(flexible copper clad) used in smartphones, play an important role in the electronics industry.Currently, 100% polyimide coatings in South Korea are dependent on imports from Japan's zhongyuan chemical (Kaneka) and Ube (Ube), so the development of polyimide coatings in South Korea will also greatly reduce the dependence on Japanese semiconductor raw materials.
According to the latest news, the south Korean company has passed the quality test of overseas customers, and has begun to discuss the supply issue with large domestic enterprises.As for fluorine-containing polyimide, the company has been developing fluorine-containing polyimide with Korean colon industry, SKC and other enterprises, and the target is to start mass production in October.
However, although the Korean company has developed a corresponding polyimide coating.But south Korean media reported that the company has only one production line, so although the new material has been successfully developed, large-scale production is not yet possible.
To this, relevant industry insiders said, if put into mass production, will be able to significantly reduce the dependence on Japanese polyimide coating.But it will require support from big companies and governments before it can be mass-produced.
In addition to polyimides, there are two other key restricted raw materials, such as EUV Resist, which have been offered by a Japanese chemical company JSR and a Belgian research institution IMEC in 2016.Because the company is not based in Japan, it is not subject to restrictions on Japanese exports.
As for the other highly purified hydrogen fluoride, which cannot be stored for long, morita chemical, which has focused on fluorine for a century, was also affected by Japan's export controls, the nikkei business daily reported.To combat the impact, its President, yasuo morita, told the media that morita chemical would start production of high-purity hydrogen fluoride at a factory in China to supply it to South Korea.
Not only that, but south Korean companies are also actively looking for alternatives to the high-purity hydrogen fluoride morita produces in mainland China.SK hynix, for example, tests hydrogen fluoride supplied by SoulBrain, a south Korean company that USES Chinese ingredients in its own production line.At the same time, there are also several enterprises in China that can meet the demand of south Korean enterprises to purchase high-purity hf, such as duofudo and binhua group.
The emergence of such emergency measures will also mean that South Korea has gradually stabilized its military from its initial panic and started an orderly replacement.This suggests that, at least temporarily, EUV photoresist and high-purity hydrogen fluoride have found alternatives, leaving only fluorinated polyimides to be solved.
Fluorinated polyimides are also the most heavily dependent material on Japan among the three major export control materials in South Korea, accounting for 93.7 percent of the fluorinated polyimides used in South Korea each year. Fluorinated polyimides are also one of the key materials for folding screen phones.
Polyimide has strong temperature resistance, low thermal expansion coefficient, water and oxygen barrier, wear resistance, high radiation resistance, non-toxic and other advantages, is the common flexible circuit board substrate material, similar to tft-lcd glass substrate, plays the role of carrier, is the most core material.While the ordinary polyimide film is brown and yellow, light transmittance is less than 70%, can not be used as a display cover.If the fluorine-containing group is introduced into the polymeric monomer to destroy the coplanar property of the biphenyl unit and make the light absorption range of the material blue shift, the fluorine-containing polyimide material with more than 99% light transmittance can be obtained, and the transparent polyimide film which can meet the requirements of folding screen cover can be produced.
It can be seen from the above information that fluorinated polyimide will be an indispensable material for folding screen.Japan's precision strikes did catch South Korea off guard, but not unprepared.According to the editor, as early as in 2011, samsung and joint venture with Japan's ube XingChan established specializing in research and development of polyimide materials in South Korea SU Material, and already have a preliminary production ability of fluorinated polyimide, plus the developed the polyimide coating industrial enterprises with cologne, SKC companies such as cellulosic ethanol containing fluorine polyimide in October, which means that the Japanese blockade plan has already been thoroughly failure.
All in all, in less than two months, South Korea has basically found a replacement.But Japan still has one ace up its sleeve -- devices like semiconductor manufacturing and testing -- that won't find an alternative anytime soon.But in any case, the editors say, the two sides have learned that they cannot go back to the close supply-demand relationship of the past, and the next step is to see how Japan plays its CARDS.(coordinating editor: Andy)