High-Performance Ceramics in 300mm Horizontal Wafer Processing Equipment

Among today’s wafer batch processing equipment, take centrotherm’s c.HORICOO300 as an example. This equipment is used by Renesas Electronics of Japan in its 300mm power semiconductor production line in Yamanashi Prefecture, mainly for oxidation and annealing processes. The system adopts an 8-tube cluster design and is equipped with a fully automatic wafer and wafer boat transfer system, which improves production capacity and yield and reduces the total cost of ownership by up to 50%. However, micro-particle contamination or uneven thermal field may lead to a decrease in the yield rate. Therefore, the requirements for components in φ200/300mm wafer processing equipment are very strict. Traditional metal materials are difficult to meet the requirements, and high-performance ceramic materials can perfectly solve this problem. Usually, ceramic materials (such as aluminum oxide and aluminum nitride) have the characteristics of high temperature resistance, high insulation, and low pollution, which can greatly improve the stability of the equipment.

Last year, we customized a batch of special 300mm Wafer Equipment Plasma Etch Chamber Insulators for a European equipment manufacturer to isolate high-voltage electric fields and ensure stable operation of plasma. The material used is high-purity alumina ceramics, because traditional insulators will have local breakdown under high-voltage electric fields above 10kV, while alumina can withstand 10~15kV high-voltage electric fields.

Semiconductor Processing Ceramic Components

Component	Function	Recommended Ceramic Materials
Wafer Boat / Susceptor	High-temperature support and heat conduction	Quartz / Alumina / SiC coating
Heat Shield / Liner	Thermal isolation and contamination prevention	High-purity Al₂O₃ / ZrO₂
Plasma RF Window	RF isolation and high insulation	Quartz / Boron Nitride
Pick-up Fingers / Support Arms	Precision wafer handling	Alumina / Silicon Nitride

Case

Alumina Pick-up Fingers

Aluminum Nitride Wafer Tray

Black Aluminum Support Arms

Services we provide

Processing materials: Alumina, aluminum nitride, zirconium oxide, Macor, quartz, SiC, etc.
Precision capability: flatness up to 0.001mm, aperture accuracy ±0.005mm, surface roughness Ra0.01μm
Testing service: support three-coordinate test report
Fast delivery: multiple five-axis CNC, 4-axis high-speed milling, fast delivery of samples

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