Linde Group is expanding its business with semiconductor manufacturers in China, signing multiple, multi-year contracts to supply high purity gases to the country's wafer fabrication plants.
In China, Linde has made a series of major investments to support the semiconductor manufacturing industry, which has grown by about 30 percent a year for the past five years. Linde has contracted to supply wafer fabs located in Chengdu, Shanghai, Suzhou and will now add Dalian, where Linde will enter into a new, multi-year agreement to supply high purity bulk gases to the new 300mm wafer fabrication being built by a major IC manufacturer.
The Dalian project, which will begin operating in early 2009, is expected to be the first of several semiconductor plants on the site. Using its unique Spectra technology, Linde will build an integrated ultra-high purity nitrogen and oxygen plant as well as a hydrogen generator and supply systems for argon and helium. Linde will also install additional infrastructure for purification, filtration and quality assurance functions.
In Suzhou, Linde has expanded its nitrogen gas production capacity feeding a high purity pipeline network in the Suzhou Industrial Park to meet increased demand from a major 200mm wafer fab site, as well as from numerous assembly and test facilities.
In Shanghai, Linde is providing complete bulk gas supply systems to advanced 200mm fabs in Songjiang and Zhangjiang. And in Chengdu, Linde is completing a production site that will supply bulk gases to the wafer fabrication and packaging plants of China's leading domestic semiconductor manufacturer. Linde also operates China's only ultra high purity liquid nitrogen plant, which provides critical backup product for our growing customer base.
Linde has also expanded its electronic special gases capacity with a new production plant in Suzhou's High Tech Park. This facility, which can handle the full range of today's advanced specialty process gases, is providing gases and chemicals to manufacturers of semiconductors, liquid crystal displays, light emitting diodes and solar cells throughout China and East Asia.