We have talked a lot about the importance of ASML for the semiconductor industry. The Dutch company is the only one that supplies extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE) equipment for the advanced chip manufacturing. Without this technology, whose competitors such as Canon and Nikon abandoned because the effort to develop it was too great, we would not have been able to overcome the 5 nanometer barrier in terms of transistors.
In the complex and entrenched industry of manufacturing the chips that power smartphones, computers, data centers and other devices, ASML is not the only essential player. There are other companies whose contribution is key and difficult to replace. The Japanese Valqua is one of them. Their products, however, do not contain thousands of parts, cables, and embedded software. The company specializes in manufacturing extremely clean tanks.
The key is in customization and cleaning
Despite the fact that Valqua’s solutions are not comparable in complexity with others that are part of the semiconductor industry, this company founded almost a century ago practically has no competition. According to Bloomberg, it is the world’s largest supplier of chemical storage tanks and, as if this were not enough, one of its largest customers is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).
And when we talk about TSMC, we talk about another giant. The Taiwanese dominate the semiconductor market overwhelmingly, with more than 50% of it escorted by Samsung. Now, why is this almost unknown company a cornerstone in chip manufacturing? His story is most interesting. According to its own website, it was founded in 1927 and its first products were brake pads for cars.
The great expertise of its team of technicians and engineers allowed the company’s managers to gradually expand its product catalogue. In 1932 they began to manufacture joints for industrial use. The quality they handled was remarkable, which is why they also entered the aviation industry supplying synthetic rubber gaskets and compressed sheets for aircraft. In an unstoppable ascent, in 1962 they reached the second section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
In subsequent years, the management of the Japanese company focused on consolidating its presence abroad and established subsidiaries in China, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam and the United States. At the same time, it continued to develop its offering of solutions, adding the ability for customers to request bespoke steel tanks. And the latter was a great differential around the competition since it sought to satisfy a specific need in the chip industry.
Chip factories require hundreds of chemical tanks of different sizes, which vary according to the needs of each manufacturer. In other words, there is no standardized measure. For this reason, Valqua’s flexibility to make tanks with custom features it is a huge advantage. These can be up to 4 meters in diameter, 9 meters high and usually have a useful life of 10 years.
These tanks are used to store chemicals for semiconductor manufacturing. And we know full well that the environments where chips are made, like the Intel factory we visited in Israel, are characterized as extremely clean. The presence of dust particles can end up ruining the wafers and, even worse, some of the expensive AMSL equipment.
Consequently, the manufacture of this particular Valqua product requires a specific protocol. The company coats the inside of tanks with fluororesin with skilled workers and with the appropriate clothing. These are also responsible for lining the pipes that connect to the tanks. And the entire process takes place in an extremely clean environment.
“An impurity at the molecular level would render the entire chemical solution in a tank useless, as it would drastically degrade the production yields of cutting-edge chip manufacturing,” says Valqua president Yoshihiro Hombo. He also ensures that the ability they have to manufacture and transport their tanks free of impurities “is not something that can be easily imitated.”
The Japanese company, as we mentioned above, took its first steps as a manufacturer of car brakes. Today it is a key part of the semiconductor industry. In fact, more than half of its income comes from this sector, which, by the way, seems to have no brakes. From Valqua they aim to achieve a 30% growth in their sales in the next four years.
Images: Valqua | TSMC
In Xataka: In the nanometer war, not only Intel, TSMC, GlobalFoundries and Samsung fight; who rules in the shadow is ASML
