Nov 1 2010
Voltaix, LLC, the acknowledged world market leader in the production of the germanium chemical vapor deposition (CVD) precursor, germane (GeH4), and Wonik Materials, Ltd., a rapidly growing South Korean Electronic Gas manufacturer and distributor, today signed an agreement which contemplates the construction of a 25 MT expansion of Voltaix’s germane production capacity at a manufacturing site in Choongchung Nam Do Province, S. Korea.
The multi-purpose manufacturing site will enable future localization of additional critical products used in the semiconductor, photovoltaic, and LCD industries.
Germane has an interesting history as an electronic gas. Originally used in Japan as a component in electrostatic printer manufacturing in the late 1970’s, it has seen growing use for manufacturing silicon-germanium alloy films for both logic and memory integrated circuits where the presence of germanium can alter the mechanical and electronic properties of silicon, producing both stressed and doped layers with enhanced electronic conductivity. In TFPV solar cells germanium improves solar conversion efficiency by increasing the absorption of red and infrared components of the solar spectrum. Many of these technologies have been embraced by the Korean electronics industry in response to the ever growing requirement for “improving semiconductor performance” (Registered Voltaix trademark), and a need has arisen to localize germane production in Korea. The proposed 25 MT plant, in conjunction with Voltaix’s comparable US production capacity, provides customers access to germane supplies adequate to meet their growing demand for the product in Korea and throughout east Asia. Wonik and Voltaix will continue their germane distribution arrangement in Korea.
Source: http://www.voltaix.com/