The “core strength” of semiconductor equipment—silicon carbide components

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a structural ceramic material with excellent properties. Silicon carbide parts, that is, equipment parts made of silicon carbide and its composite materials as the main materials, have the characteristics of high density, high thermal conductivity, high bending strength, large elastic modulus, etc., and can be adapted to wafer epitaxy, etching, etc. Due to the highly corrosive and ultra-high temperature harsh reaction environment in the manufacturing process, it is widely used in major semiconductor equipment such as epitaxial growth equipment, etching equipment, and oxidation/diffusion/annealing equipment.

According to the crystal structure, there are many crystal forms of silicon carbide. Currently, the common SiC are mainly 3C, 4H and 6H types. Different crystal forms of SiC have different uses. Among them, 3C-SiC is also often called β-SiC. An important use of β-SiC is as a film and coating material. Therefore, β-SiC is currently the main material for graphite base coating.

According to the preparation process, silicon carbide parts can be divided into chemical vapor deposition silicon carbide (CVD SiC), reaction sintered silicon carbide, recrystallization sintered silicon carbide, atmospheric pressure sintered silicon carbide, hot pressing sintered silicon carbide, hot isostatic pressing sintering and carbonization Silicon etc.

Silicon carbide parts

1. CVD silicon carbide parts

CVD silicon carbide components are widely used in etching equipment, MOCVD equipment, SiC epitaxial equipment, rapid heat treatment equipment and other fields.

Etching equipment: The largest market segment for CVD silicon carbide components is etching equipment. CVD silicon carbide components in etching equipment include focusing rings, gas shower heads, trays, edge rings, etc. Due to the low reactivity and conductivity of CVD silicon carbide to chlorine- and fluorine-containing etching gases, it becomes a plasma Ideal material for components such as focus rings in etching equipment.

Graphite base coating: Low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is currently the most effective process for preparing dense SiC coatings. The thickness of CVD-SiC coatings is controllable and has the advantages of uniformity. SiC-coated graphite bases are commonly used in metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) equipment to support and heat single crystal substrates. They are the core and key components of MOCVD equipment.

2. Reaction sintered silicon carbide parts

For reaction-sintered (reactive infiltration or reaction bonding) SiC materials, the sintering line shrinkage can be controlled below 1%, and the sintering temperature is relatively low, which greatly reduces the requirements for deformation control and sintering equipment. Therefore, this technology has the advantage of easily achieving large-scale components and has been widely used in the fields of optical and precision structure manufacturing.