Electronic chemicals, also known as electronic chemical materials, refer to fine chemical materials supporting the electronics industry. Electronic chemicals have the characteristics of many varieties, high quality requirements, small dosage, demanding environmental cleanliness, fast product replacement and higher value-added products. Electronic chemicals are one of the important supporting materials for the development of the electronics industry, whose quality not only directly affects the quality of electronic products, but also has a major impact on the industrialization of microelectronic manufacturing technology. The development of the electronics industry requires that the electronics chemicals industry be synchronized with it. Therefore, electronics chemicals have become one of the key materials for the development of the electronics industry. Commonly used electronic chemicals include substrates, photoresists, electroplating chemicals, packaging materials, high-purity reagents, special gases, solvents, corrosives, and electronic special adhesives.
Applications:
Electronic chemicals are widely used in the electronics industry, aerospace and environmental monitoring due to their advantages of high purity, high value, and rich variety.
- Electronics industry: The application of electronic chemicals in the electronics industry is its most important application. Crystalline silicon solar cells are one of the important products in the electronics industry. The conventional process flow of crystalline silicon solar cell manufacturing mainly includes silicon wafer cleaning, suede preparation, diffusion bonding, plasma peripheral etching, dephosphorized silicon glass, PECVD anti-reflection film preparation, electrode printing, sintering and Laser testing. In these industrial processes, almost every step uses electronic chemicals. As a gas source that provides silicon components, silane is a very important chemical electronics, which can be used to manufacture high purity polycrystalline silicon, single crystal silicon, microcrystalline silicon, amorphous silicon, silicon nitride, silicon oxide, heterogeneous silicon, and various metal silicides. Using silane as a silicon source is the most effective way to attach silicon molecules to the surface of the battery, and has the advantages of high purity and easy to achieve fine control. At present, silane has become an important special gas that cannot be replaced by many other silicon sources in the manufacturing process of crystalline silicon solar cells. In addition, in the manufacturing process of crystalline silicon solar cells, the cleanliness and surface condition of the silicon wafer have a great influence on the photoelectric conversion efficiency. Therefore, the cleaning of silicon wafers is the focus of production. Electronic chemicals such as sulfuric acid, aqua regia, acidic and alkaline hydrogen peroxide solutions can be used as "cleaning agents" in the manufacture of crystalline silicon solar cells, to achieve the purpose of decontamination.
Figure 1. Silane
- Aerospace: With the rapid development of the aerospace field, the electronic devices used are continuously miniaturized and highly integrated, and the reliability requirements are getting higher and higher. Electronic packaging materials used in the aerospace industry require lower density, higher thermal conductivity, and better matching of chip thermal expansion coefficients. Packaging materials such as BeO, AlN, Al/SiC, and AlSi have gradually become some commonly used packaging materials in the aerospace field due to the above advantages. For example, SiCp/Al composite materials are used as lightweight electronic packaging and thermal control materials in autopilots and electronic systems in aircraft, and have achieved a 70% weight reduction effect.
Figure 2. Silicone plastic for electronic packaging
- Environmental monitoring: Biosensors are one of the important instruments applied in environmental monitoring, which are often used in the preparation of biosensors. As a crucial electronic chemical, it can transfer the graphics on the mask to different substrates under the influence of light. Among a wide variety of photoresists, SU-8 negative photoresists are widely used to manufacture high aspect ratio structures due to their advantages of low visible light absorption, high thermal stability, good chemical stability and high sensitivity to ultraviolet rays, such as biosensors. For example, a new composite conductive photoresist can be obtained by fully mixing and dispersing 1223 graphene (GR) and SU-8 photoresist. The composite conductive photoresist is coated on the surface of indium tin oxide (ITO) glass to prepare a patterned three-dimensional electrode. By further electrochemically reducing CuNPs on the electrode surface in situ, a new enzyme-free sensor can be prepared, which can be used for the detection of hydrogen peroxide and other gases.
References:
- Kazunori Sakai. (2018). "Progress in metal organic cluster EUV photoresists." Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B 36(6), 2166-2746
- Yan-Jun Wan. (2020). "Recent advances in polymer-based electronic packaging materials." Composites Communications 19, 154-167.
- Gioia Michelotti. (2020), "Silane Effect of Universal Adhesive on the Composite-Composite Repair Bond Strength after Different Surface Pretreatments.." Polymers 12, 950-961.