Wacker Chemie has commissioned the ‘Etching Line Next’, its new manufacturing line for the production of ultra-pure semiconductor-grade polysilicon, at its Burghausen manufacturing site in Germany.
“Ultra-natural polycrystalline silicon is the purest man-made material. Everything regarding the semiconductor industry and, therefore, digital transformation turns round this main raw material,” stated Wacker’s CEO Mr. Christian Hartel at some point of the opening ceremony. “We are the only corporation in Europe and the biggest in the world who produces ultrapure polysilicon for the semiconductor industry. The Etching Line Next permits us to further consolidate our role as a worldwide quality and technology leader,” he added.
Polysilicon in the highest grade of purity is essential for generating high-performance chips neede, for example, in artificial intelligence programs or supercomputers. Very few corporations are capable of meet the more stringent purity requirements of the semiconductor industry. In the polysilicon business for over 70 years, chemical organization Wacker is the world’s leading manufacturer of this main raw material in the semiconductor industry.
Compared to 2024, the corporation pursuits to double its sales to semiconductor clients by 2030. “The new manufacturing line is a main venture for our growth,” said Mr. Hartel. “Today, every second computer chip is made from polysilicon delivered by means of Wacker. ‘Etching Line Next’ will not only permit us to fulfill the developing needs of the semiconductor industry, however also to gain an exceedingly high product quality and a very high level of stability in manufacturing processes. Thanks to our new line, we will continually produce polysilicon with the intention to enable developers and producers to come with even more effective logic and memory chips for the most demanding programs, such as artificial intelligence.”
With a total expenditure of over €300-mn, the brand new line is recently the German group’s largest funding venture. Construction work started out in fall 2022. Commissioning occurred in stage from fall 2024. The plant lately went into operation and is already producing its first consignments. By virtue of the brand new manufacturing line, Wacker is increasing its manufacturing capacity for products that comply with the highest semiconductor-grade standards by more than 50%.
