Neon
Laser Vision
The noble gas neon is synonymous with neon signs that light up the world's largest cities. This gas gives out a bright orange light when lit, and is especially visible from a distance.
Air Products supplies neon gas and neon-fluorine excimer laser mixtures for lithography, etching, LASIK, micro-machining organic materials, micro-drilling and dicing.
The Use of Neon Gas
Among all, today the most important use for neon is in ultraviolet (UV) lasers, called excimer lasers. The term excimer is a short for excited dimer. This laser is especially good for making clean and precise cuts in the range of hundreds of nanometres. Since the UV laser produces no heat, it does not cause scarring which makes it popular in laser eye surgery (LASIK). In semiconductor manufacturing, it is used for lithography. Because its wavelength is so short it can create patterns in the wafer chip down to 193 nanometres.
Air Products' laser premix blends consist of very reactive, toxic and corrosive materials like fluorine and xenon. Creating an accurate and stable laser premix is very important to ensure a consistent laser output that leads to optimum and reproducible results. It is also important to ensure safety so that impurities do not react with components to form dangerous gases such as hydrogen fluoride.
Rare Gases
Rare gases, also known as noble gases, are the most inert and unreactive elements known to man. They are found in very low concentrations in the environment and are manufactured by Air Separation Units (ASU). Due to their unique chemical properties, experts have found very novel and interesting applications for them.
Xenon for Semiconductor and Memory Chips Manufacturing
Xenon is used for etching and deposition of microchips in semiconductor manufacturing, both as an atmosphere, plasma and as an ion beam source for etching and deposition processes. Xenon used in this process needs to be very pure as any impurities will end up contaminating the silicon substrate or reacting with the process chemicals like fluorine to produce poisonous and highly corrosive hydrogen fluoride (HF). As a global leader in servicing the electronics industry, Air Products’ xenon is produced in our state-of-the-art electronics grade plant for better quality assurance. It can be used in excimer laser, laser buffer gases, etching of DRAM and 3D NAND and plasma display panels.