NEW HIGH-PURITY, ETCH-GRADE ALUMINA FOR SEMICONDUCTOR PROCESSING MINIMIZES PARTICLE GENERATION
11 May 2006 - Carpenter Technology Corporation

Carpenter Advanced Ceramics, Inc. has developed a new 99.8% pure alumina, specifically for semiconductor processing. CAC998 is an etch-grade material that offers excellent plasma and chemical resistance by eliminating free silica at the grain boundaries and having low silica content in the material matrix.

Parts made from CAC998 alumina are manufactured to customer specifications. These parts can be considered for all front-end processes including etch, PVD, CVD, CMP, ion implant and photolithography. Back-end applications include high-temperature support substrates for test and assembly.

CAC998 is processed with dedicated, high-purity equipment in a production line with state-of-the-art filtration. Optimum material quality and consistency are obtained by employing CAC's proprietary process database. In addition to eliminating free silica at the grain boundaries, CAC998 is formulated to provide what the company believes to be the best dielectric strength of any commercially available polycrystalline.

Along with the elimination of silica at grain boundaries (silica is useful in sintering but a contaminant in etch applications), the new CAC material also has reduced grain size, hence increased density. Proprietary atomization technology used to manufacture CAC998 yields not only exceptional dielectric strength, but thermal shock resistance as well. These properties in combination provide resistance to plasmas and acids used in semiconductor processing and cleaning.

During wafer processing, particle generation is virtually eliminated by CAC998 alumina, thus safeguarding the integrity of the silicon wafers. Therefore, CAC998 may help reduce wafer rejects, improve part life and substantially increase yields.

With the enhanced properties of the new material, manufacturers may expect to get significantly more plasma cleaning cycles through their chambers. CAC998 can survive more "in-situ" and "ex-situ" cleans, equating to longer process kit life and greater part throughput with existing kits. This improves the quality and chip yield of the manufacturers' wafers and reduces the cost of equipment ownership over the life of the part.

The good thermal shock resistance of the new high-purity alumina enables it to withstand fast, large fluctuations in temperature while in the chamber, without cracking or fracturing. This attribute allows the semiconductor manufacturer to reduce cycle times by permitting more rapid temperature changes.

CAC manufactures a variety of chamber-critical semiconductor components from alumina and related ceramics, including cover rings, deposition rings, focus rings, chamber liners, isolators, wafer paddles, shields and spacers, wafer support rings, wafer lift pins and guide pins, injector tubes, gas nozzles, insulator blocks and wafer domes.

http://www.cartech.com

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