Neon Gas (High-Purity)

Full briefing

Neon is an inert noble gas that is recovered as a minor byproduct of industrial air separation — primarily in large steel mills that process vast quantities of air to extract oxygen and nitrogen. Semiconductor-grade neon must reach purities of 99.999% or higher before it can be blended into the laser gas mixture used in ArF excimer lithography systems. In deep-ultraviolet (DUV) lithography, ArF excimer lasers emit light at 193nm, which is used to expose photoresist on wafers at nodes ranging from 14nm to 7nm (and at 5nm with multiple patterning). The laser gas mixture is predominantly neon (roughly 95–97%), with small amounts of argon and fluorine. Each laser cavity consumes and refreshes this gas blend continuously during operation. A high-volume semiconductor fab may consume hundreds of kilograms of high-purity neon per year. Prior to 2022, two Ukrainian companies — Ingas (Mariupol) and Cryoin Engineering (Odessa) — together supplied an estimated 45–70% of the world's semiconductor-grade neon, leveraging neon-rich exhaust gas from Ukraine's large steel industry. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 shut down the Mariupol facility immediately and placed the Odessa plant at risk, triggering a supply shock that drove neon spot prices up by more than 500% within weeks. The crisis catalyzed rapid investment in alternative neon purification capacity in the United States (Air Products, Linde, Messer), Germany, and other countries. By late 2023, supply diversification had substantially reduced the single-country risk, though Ukraine-origin neon remains a significant portion of the market for fabs that have not yet fully requalified alternative suppliers. ASML's DUV systems — which account for the majority of chips produced between 5nm and 28nm globally — remain the primary demand driver for semiconductor-grade neon.