Russia-Ukraine conflict: Illuminating the neon supply impact on the semiconductor industry

Neon is used for the manufacturing of mature process nodes, which are already under supply chain pressure. The reduction in gas supply will likely lead to higher neon prices but will this cause any significant supply shortages of semiconductors?

The supply chain and technology team of IHS Markit has been monitoring the Russia-Ukraine crisis to closely assess its impact on the already challenged automotive semiconductor supply chain. It is anticipated that the semiconductor grade neon supply from Ukraine may discontinue but there don’t appear to be signs that this will cause a significant impact on the automotive semiconductor supply. For example, AMSL, a lithography equipment manufacturer, sources less than 20% of its neon from Ukraine. Intel, GlobalFoundries and UMC have all said they anticipate little impact but are looking at alternate sources.