This photo taken on July 31, 2019, shows wafers displayed at an exhibition hall at Samsung Electronics Co.’s office building in Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Oct. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — POSCO and Samsung Electronics Co. will jointly push for the localization of xenon, a key material gas used for chipmaking.
Samsung, the world’s largest memory chip maker, has been importing all of the xenon it uses from overseas.
The two parties announced on Thursday that they had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to promote cooperation in the area of xenon gas for use in semiconductors.
POSCO will be in charge of the development of xenon production technology and production and supply, while Samsung will be responsible for certifying the quality of xenon and procurement.
At present, domestic demand companies are relying on imports from the U.S., China and South Africa.
The steelmaker plans to develop a facility that can extract xenon from residual gases generated at its Gwangyang plant by the second half of 2023. It will begin production and supply xenon to Samsung in 2024.
POSCO will boost the output by expanding the application of xenon gas extracting facilities to about 10 units of air separation equipment at its Pohang and Gwangyang steel plants by 2027.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
