Oxide ceramics are used in semiconductor equipment

Ceramic material is an indispensable material in human life and modernization

It is one of the most important inorganic nonmetallic materials after metal materials and nonmetallic materials.  It has the common advantages of metal materials and polymer materials, in the process of continuous modification, ceramic materials with its excellent performance in the field of materials unique, highly valued by people, in the future social development will play a very important role.  Among them, oxide ceramics have the characteristics of high hardness, high wear resistance, corrosion resistance and so on, especially it does not have the problem of oxidation, so as a special structural ceramic material and has a wide range of applications.  

Oxide ceramics mainly include magnesium oxide ceramics, alumina ceramics, beryllium oxide ceramics, zirconia ceramics, tin oxide ceramics, silica ceramics, mullite ceramics.  The most commonly used are alumina ceramics and zirconia ceramics.

Al2O3 ceramic high temperature resistance, low thermal conductivity, can be used as insulation materials, such as for missile nozzle liner, thermocouple protective sleeve, jet flame controller, can also be used as high temperature furnace tube, crucible, transparent alumina ceramic can also be used as sodium lamp tube.  In chemical application, Al2O3 ceramics also have a wide range of uses, such as ceramic chemical packing ball, inorganic microfiltration membrane, corrosion resistant coating, etc.. Because of its high melting point, low thermal conductivity and high oxidation resistance, ZrO2 ceramics can be used as refractory materials and furnace lining materials as high temperature ceramics. Al2O3 and ZrO2 can also be used to prepare ceramic membrane for fine filtration treatment of various materials and liquids in hydrometallurgy process.  And foam ceramic material filter for the casting process of liquid metal filtration.  

Today, in addition to these applications, oxide ceramics are important in another important area, and that is semiconductor equipment.  It is understood that semiconductor equipment will use a large number of precision ceramic parts, and these ceramic parts can account for more than 10% of the cost of semiconductor equipment, among which alumina, zirconia and other oxide ceramics are more commonly used precision parts with ceramic materials.  

For example, alumina ceramics, in semiconductor etching equipment, etching machine chamber material as the main source of wafer pollution, plasma etching on its influence determines the wafer yield, quality, etching process stability and so on.  Therefore, the research and development of an extremely etching resistant cavity material has become a very challenging task in semiconductor integration industry and plasma etching technology.  At present, high purity Al2O3 coating or Al2O3 ceramics are mainly used as protective materials for etching cavity and parts inside the cavity.  In addition to the cavity, the plasma equipment gas nozzles, gas distribution plate and the fixed ring to hold the wafer also need alumina ceramic.  For example, in wafer polishing process, alumina ceramics can be widely used in polishing plate, polishing pad correction platform, vacuum sucker, etc.  

Zirconia ceramics also have important applications in semiconductor equipment, such as ceramic cleaps, cleaps are essential tools in the process of lead bonding, the main component of some manufacturers of ceramic cleaps is zirconia reinforced alumina, its microstructure is uniform and dense, the density is increased to 4.3g/cm3.  The tetragonal zirconia content and uniform and compact microstructure make the zro2-doped ceramic cleft have excellent mechanical properties and reduce the wear and replacement times of the ceramic cleft tip during the welding process.  

In a word, the application of oxide ceramics in semiconductor equipment is far more extensive than we imagined. In the current complex international trade situation, the urgent demand of semiconductor equipment and materials industry will promote the r&d and production of domestic ceramic parts for semiconductor equipment, which is both an opportunity and a challenge.