China 2 Silicon Carbide Processing Trays Manufacturers, Suppliers, Factory

Japan recently restricted exports of 23 types of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The announcement has sent ripples across the industry, as the move is expected to have a significant impact on global supply chains for semiconductor manufacturing.

As a wide-bandgap (WBG) semiconductor material, SiC's wider energy difference gives it higher thermal and electronic properties compared to traditional Si. This feature enables power devices to operate at higher temperatures, frequencies and voltages.

Currently, many semiconductor devices employ mesa device structures, which are predominantly created through two types of etching: wet etching and dry etching. While the simple and rapid wet etching plays a significant role in semiconductor device fabrication, it has inherent drawbacks such as isotropic etching and poor uniformity, which result in limited control when transferring small-sized patterns. Dry etching, however, with its high anisotropy, good uniformity, and repeatability, has become prominent in semiconductor device fabrication processes. The term “dry etching” broadly refers to any non-wet etching technology used for removing surface materials and transferring micro and nano patterns, including laser etching, plasma etching, and chemical vapor etching. The dry etching discussed in this text specifically pertains to the narrow application of processes using plasma discharge—either physical or chemical—to modify material surfaces.

Silicon carbide (SiC) is highly favored in the semiconductor industry for its excellent physical and chemical properties. However, the high hardness and brittleness of SiC pose considerable challenges to its processing.

The development of 3C-SiC, a significant polytype of silicon carbide, reflects the continuous advancement of semiconductor material science. In the 1980s, Nishino et al. first achieved a 4 μm thick 3C-SiC film on a silicon substrate using chemical vapor deposition (CVD)[1], laying the foundation for 3C-SiC thin-film technology.

Silicon carbide (SiC), a prominent structural ceramic, is renowned for its exceptional properties, including high-temperature strength, hardness, elastic modulus, wear resistance, thermal conductivity, and corrosion resistance. These attributes make it suitable for a wide range of applications, from traditional industrial uses in high-temperature kiln furniture, burner nozzles, heat exchangers, sealing rings, and sliding bearings, to advanced applications like ballistic armor, space mirrors, semiconductor wafer chucks, and nuclear fuel cladding.