The hidden hand

The Dead Sea salt company that makes semiconductors

Hydrogen bromide, an irreplaceable etching gas for advanced chips, comes from a single integrated bromine facility in Israel with no viable substitutes.

The number

100to 1 etch selectivity vs. chlorine alternatives

ICL's Sodom, Israel plant converts bromine extracted from Dead Sea brine into hydrogen bromide (HBr) in a single production step. Every advanced DRAM and NAND flash chip relies on HBr's superior 100:1 polysilicon-to-oxide selectivity to function at sub-10nm geometries, making bromine supply risk to semiconductors 'more dangerous than helium' — there is no substitution pathway.

Source: Bromine supply risk 'more dangerous' than helium for chip industry · gasworld · Dec 31, 2023

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