Do you know that 3nm chips and OLED screens, as key projects in China’s high-end electronics industry, have a core material in their core technology, which is heavy water? How effective can this seemingly ordinary liquid be? Today, we will unveil its mysterious veil!
1、 3nm chip: The smaller the chip, the more precise it is, relying on heavy water to “stabilize” it!
As the chip manufacturing process enters the 3nm era, the size of transistors has become even finer, in plain language, 20000 times thinner than our hair. At this stage, even small defects can cause great problems, and heavy water solves this problem;
The silicon film formed by the decomposition of deuterated silane is the core of 3nm chips, and heavy water is the only deuterium source for preparing deuterated silane. Experiments have shown that using deuterated silane in 3nm chips can reduce the defect density of the film to one tenth of that of ordinary processes, and can also resist high temperature and strong electric fields during chip operation, reducing the risk of transistor leakage and greatly improving the service life of the device;
The purity requirements for heavy water are also extremely high, requiring 99.999% ultra-high purity heavy water to avoid the problem of chip short circuits caused by impurities forming protruding defects. Tianjin Shanglan Gas can provide you with a variety of specifications and ultra-high purity heavy water.
2、 OLED Screen: From “Burnt Screen” to “Eternal Life”, Rewriting Display Rules with Heavy Water!
Heavy water not only plays a significant role in the 3nm chip manufacturing process, but also in OLED screens. A team from Tsinghua University replaced all hydrogen atoms in blue light TADF molecules with deuterium (deuterium substitution rate of 99%), suppressing material aging and increasing device lifespan by several times, from 200 hours to 1365 hours
Moreover, with the increasing self-sufficiency rate of heavy water in China’s semiconductor industry year by year, the elimination of dependence on imports has significantly reduced costs and solved the long-standing problem of screen burn-in in the industry.
3、 The application of heavy water in other fields
The value of heavy water far exceeds imagination and has very important applications in more fields; The most typical example is in the field of nuclear energy,
As a neutron moderator for nuclear reactors, it can make nuclear reactions more controllable and increase safety by more than three times;
In the medical field, deuterated drugs have a slower metabolism rate, greatly improving drug efficacy;
Moreover, if heavy water is added to the optical fiber for deuterium doping, it can reduce 5G signal transmission loss by 15% and achieve relay free transmission for 1000 kilometers.
From 3nm chips to OLED screens, and beyond, heavy water plays an extremely important role in the high-end industry. With the continuous iteration of purification technology in China, we will achieve better quality of life at lower costs in the future. The story of heavy water is not only a technological victory, but also a microcosm of humanity’s pursuit of “ultimate purity”.
