The price of neon gas used in wafer fabrication, or semiconductor production, is beginning to drop.
The precious gas used in excimer laser gas for lithography at one time saw a price jump of 20 times last year.
This was due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which burdened supply chains and customers began to buy in bulk to stack up their inventory.
At one time, the price of neon gas for South Korean chipmakers reached 30 million won per 47 liters.
The price is now 5 million won per 47 liters. The price likely dropped from the increased use of Chinese and local vendors for the gases by South Korean chipmakers.
Samsung and SK Hynix are also seeing their operation rate of fabs lowered from dropped demand for chips, which means demand has also become lower for this gas.
Those in the industry told TheElec that chipmakers are expecting the price to return to before the invasion of Ukraine.
