Graphite along with other materials such as pyrolitic boron nitride (PBN) and Silicon Carbide (SiC) have been used in processing for many years where their combination of purity and resistance to chemicals and thermal shock mean they are ideally suited to the unique requirements of the semiconductor manufacturing process. Despite their effectiveness, further innovation in ceramic-based materials is being driven by the need to reduce cycle times and reject rates in this competitive sector.
While ceramic materials are rarely used in the ‘slicing’ process that creates individual ‘wafers’ from the monocrystal silicon ingots, they come into their own in the subsequent wafer processing steps including ion implantation, deposition and etch processes, which introduce successive conducting and insulating layers into the wafer before it is broken down into individual chips.
The need for precision in the process has increased greatly as the size of connectors has dramatically reduced, from typically 30 nanometres (nm) to around 10nm. This issue is exacerbated by the desire to process larger individual wafers to increase overall productivity. The move towards the processing of 450mm wafers places greater demands on both materials and components.
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