Research News: New gases for new chips-only one result of the drive toward higher performance and lower costs in the highly competitive semiconductor industry. New multistep thin-film manufacturing processes have been developed that critically depend on ultrahigh-purity fluorocarbon gases to deliver the highest levels of process performance and end-product reliability. The author concentrates on the discussion of the development of such new high-purity process gases, which are expected to play an important role in future generations of thin-film manufacturing technology.