The research, development and industrial production of special gases have developed with the development of the electronic industry, especially the integrated circuit technology. Special gases are a new category of Industrial gas, which are produced by the industrial developed countries in the world to meet the needs of Arms industry, scientific research, automation technology, precision detection, especially the development of microelectronics technology in recent years. Special gases mainly include high-purity gas, electronic gas, standard gas, as well as newly developed medical gas, calibration gas, and zero point gas.

At present, the application fields and demand for special gases are gradually expanding, and the variety is increasing. According to incomplete statistics, the existing unit of special gases has reached 260 varieties. According to gas miscibility, more than 25000 types of mixed gases can be prepared, becoming an indispensable basic raw material in the high-tech field and other scientific research and technological application fields.

In recent years, the research and application of special gases in China have made significant progress from scratch. The application of special gases in the national economy is becoming increasingly widespread, and the research and development of new types of gases is receiving widespread attention from top to bottom. Some commonly used special gases have basically overcome the passive situation of relying solely on imports, not only saving a lot of foreign exchange for the country, but also making great contributions to the development of China's own electronic industry. However, it cannot be ignored that the research and application of special gases in China still lags far behind developed countries, and a considerable amount of special gases need to be imported. The electronic gas imported in 1987 alone cost 3.08 million yuan. Therefore, it is necessary to form a new pattern in China that integrates the research, development, production, and supply of special gases and their supporting devices. The so-called "third wave" is led by the rapid development of high-tech. Without a strong special gas industry as the backing, the localization process of China's electronic industry will be difficult and will eventually drag the Four Modernizations. Therefore, it is of great strategic significance to comprehensively develop and establish China's own special gas industry, in order to completely change the passive situation that relies on imports.

During the "Sixth Five Year Plan" and the "Seventh Five Year Plan", nine research units and manufacturers throughout the country have been committed to the development and application of special gases. Among the 35 most commonly used types of special gases, there are nearly 30 kinds available domestically, such as high-purity hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, silane, phosphine, silicon dichloride, high-purity ammonia, high-purity hydrogen chloride, etc. These gases have been used in nearly 100 processes of large-scale integrated circuit (LSI) and Very Large Scale Integration (VlSI) manufacturing, Mainly used in 13 important processes, such as crystal growth, thermal oxidation, epitaxy, diffusion plasma etching, etc. During use, the purity of special gases directly affects the quality and yield of integrated circuit blocks. Therefore, as the most basic raw material in the electronic industry, special gases should be given considerable attention. There are two main categories of standard gas applications. Firstly, standard gases are used in industries such as petroleum, chemical engineering, and metallurgy. There are over 30 large enterprises in China, including Liaoyang Chemical Fiber, Daqing Petrochemical, Yanshan Petrochemical, Shougang, and Baosteel, which require over 60 types of standard gases annually, with nearly 20000 bottles. However, China can only provide a few thousand bottles of over 20 commonly used gases, which far cannot meet the demand of the domestic market and a considerable portion relies on imports; The second is the standard gas used for environmental monitoring, mainly used for monitoring air pollution and automobile exhaust. Currently, only the Institute of Reference Materials of the Chinese Academy of Metrology can provide a small amount of more than ten standard mixtures such as CO/N2, CH4/N2, SO2/N2, and the vast majority need to be imported. The development and application of standard gas is a weakness in China's special gas industry, and requires significant efforts to make up for it. At present, the Special Gas Institute of Beijing Oxygen Plant, Southwest Chemical Research Institute, and Guangming Chemical Research Institute of the Ministry of Chemical Industry have started research in this area. In addition, other special application gas mixtures basically rely on imports, while the domestic market is very large. For example, various gas mixtures for Electric light, welding, medical gas, laser, optical fiber, and food preservation need to be researched and developed urgently.

The above provides a brief overview of the research and development of special gases in China. From the current status and development of China's electronic industry and other scientific research and industrial sectors, the application of special gases has very broad prospects. In the electronics industry alone, the amount of special gases has quadrupled in the past five years, and the variety used has nearly doubled. According to information provided by relevant departments, after entering the 1980s, the usage of electronic gas, fiber optic gas, standard gas, etc. will further increase exponentially, and the variety used will also further expand. This provides a good opportunity for the development of special gases. While vigorously developing the electronic industry and Fiber-optic communication, we should simultaneously strengthen the research and development of special gases and strive to narrow the gap with developed countries. The localization of special gases is the first step in the localization of China's electronic industry. The success of this step directly affects the development of high-tech sectors such as China's electronic industry.

However, the development of special gases in China seems to be unsatisfactory. Due to the characteristics of flammability, explosiveness, high toxicity, and strong corrosiveness of special gases, there are significant difficulties in research work, which has led to a relatively slow development of special gases in China. From the current situation, there are mainly two problems:

1. The gas varieties that are easy to develop appear the phenomenon of repeated development, while some highly toxic, corrosive and badly needed gases, such as borane, arsane, dichlorosilane, tungsten hexahydride, nitrogen trihydride, etc., have not received the due attention, which has relatively scattered human and financial resources, resulting in some unnecessary waste. We should pay attention to coordinating the relationship between all parties in Macromanagement, starting from long-term interests, and coordinating key projects to tackle key problems, And attach importance to utilizing the gradually established and sound technology market.

2. The development of supporting devices lags far behind the research progress of special gases, affecting the purity of high-purity gases, such as valves, pressure reducers, and gas cylinders. At present, the majority of valves and pressure reducers used by domestic semiconductor factories have to be imported from the United States and Japan, while all cylinder cabinets and blowing systems rely on imports, which is particularly noteworthy. If the problem of supporting devices cannot be solved, the research, development and application of special gases will be greatly affected.