Air Liquide To Increase Monosilane Capacity

Air Liquide will triple monosilane gas capacity at its Denal Silane joint venture with Denka Group in Omi, Japan. The joint venture will construct a world-scale plant that will bring capacity at the site to 2,000 metric tons per year by 2010.

Just last year, Denal Silane expanded silane production in Omi to 500 metric tons. But that increase apparently can't keep pace with the breakneck rise in use of the gas. Air Liquide says the global market for the gas, a key raw material used to make semiconductors, flat-panel displays, and solar cells, has been growing at more than 25% per year.

Christophe Fontaine, vice president of Air Liquide's electronics group, says the company is the only producer of industrial gases that manufactures silane. Air Liquide is also opening other electronic materials centers in Japan and in Taiwan and China to distribute silane and other gases.