Air Liquide opens new plant in South Korea to support chip industry
Industrial gas major Air Liquide has started up a molybdenum manufacturing plant in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, to support semiconductor manufacturers.
The plant will supply customers with Air Liquide’s advanced materials offering, Subleem, which makes it easier to use solid precursors like molybdenum chlorides in advanced 3D-NAND memory, helping improve read and write speeds.
Molybdenum is emerging as a promising replacement for the traditional chip manufacturing material tungsten and aims to help the next generations of advanced memory and logic chips driven by AI applications.
Air Liquide is already supplying Subleem to two early adopters of molybdenum.
Armelle Levieux, who oversees Air Liquide’s electronics activities, said the company is committed to helping customers in the semiconductor manufacturing industry tackle the challenges of the fast-growing industry.
“Our strategic presence in key semiconductor hubs, combined with our unique innovation know-how, allows us to rapidly develop and bring to the market breakthrough technical solutions crucial for next-generation chips,” she said.
Air Liquide already has a production unit in operation in Japan since 2023 and will open another manufacturing plant in the US by the end of 2025 to support the upcoming wave of demand.
