What precision components can be made from precision ceramics ?

In high-end photolithography machines, in order to achieve high process accuracy, it is necessary to widely use ceramic parts with good functional compositeness, structural stability, thermal stability, and dimensional accuracy, such as E-chuck, Vacumm-chuck, Block, magnetic Steel frame water-cooling plates, reflectors, guide rails, etc. These key components are generally made of ceramic materials.

In etching equipment, the components made of ceramic materials mainly include window mirrors, gas dispersion disks, nozzles, insulating rings, cover plates, focusing rings and electrostatic chucks, etc. With the reduction of chip feature size and the gradual increase of halogen plasma energy, the plasma etching resistance of the etching machine process chamber and components within the chamber has become increasingly important. Compared with organic and metallic materials, ceramic materials generally have better resistance to physical and chemical corrosion and high operating temperatures. Therefore, in the semiconductor industry, a variety of ceramic materials have become the precursor to the semiconductor single crystal silicon wafer manufacturing process. Manufacturing materials for the core components of equipment in the processing process.

For another example, the ceramic riving knife is an indispensable tool in the wire bonding process. The main component of the ceramic riving knife of some manufacturers is zirconia-reinforced alumina. Its microstructure is uniform and dense, and the density is increased to 4.3g/cm³. The content of tetragonal zirconia and the uniform and dense microstructure enable zirconium-doped ceramic riving tools to have very excellent mechanical properties, reducing the wear and replacement of the ceramic riving tool tip during the wire bonding process.

A semiconductor device seems to be made of metal and plastic, but in fact there are many highly technical precision ceramic components hidden inside. In short, precision ceramics are used in semiconductor equipment far more than we imagine.