Silicon Wafer Boat

Semicorex can customize the silicon wafer boat structure, including the groove rod shape, groove tooth length, shape, tilt angle, and total wafer loading capacity, and can be produced according to customer requirements. High-temperature silicon boats can effectively reduce contact damage to silicon wafers and improve process yield. Its high-temp "slip-free towers" design supports wafers only at the tip of the supporting tooth. Compared to silicon carbide, silicon has a relatively low hardness, which reduces mechanical damage to wafers, thereby improving lattice pass rate and effectively reducing production costs. The fused silicon boat is composed of several parts: teeth, base plate, and top plate, which are fused together. This reduces production costs. In the event of partial damage, the damaged parts can be replaced without replacing the entire silicon boat, significantly reducing ownership costs during use. In addition, the silicon boat has a large upper limit for polysilicon deposition, which can effectively reduce the frequency of PM equipment and improve production capacity.

Semicorex Silicon Wafer Boat is an innovative, purpose-designed, wafer carrier. It is specifically created for high-temperature furnace processing used in the semiconductor industry, including oxidation and reduction processes at temperatures between 1200 and 1250 °C. Featuring performance benefits not available in silicon carbide (SiC) material, the Silicon Wafer Boat provides advantages pertinent to the rigorous processes semiconductor manufacturing requires. First, the ultra-high purity of the silicon material is significant; in fact, the silicon material achieves ultra-high-purity levels of over 9N (99.9999999%), thus ensuring no metallic or foreign impurities will contaminate wafer processing. This is crucial for leading-edge semiconductor device manufacturing where performance reliability and yield are heavily impacted by contamination. The Silicon Wafer Boat provides an ultra-clean environment with a high level of purity suitable for the most advanced industry requirements for the handling of wafers exposed to very high temperatures for oxidation and reduction processing.

Another benefit of the silicon material is its lower hardness properties when compared to SiC material. SiC bars or boats are known for hardness and strength, but the very property can lead to difficulties during wafer processing. At high temperatures, the wafers will micro-move; they will bounce slightly, shift slightly, and edge warp while inside the boat. A harder, SiC material can pose higher risks of generating particles or scratches to the backside of the wafer as the properties of the wafer and boat interact under these high-temperature processing conditions.

The Silicon Wafer Boat alleviates this concern by taking advantage of silicon's relatively soft character in relation to SiC. The reduction in hardness allows for both less friction and mechanical stress when wafers contact the boat during thermal cycles. As a result, particles are generated less often and the risk of backside scratches is reduced to nearly zero. Furthermore, by minimizing surface defects, the Silicon Wafer Boat directly improves lattice quality and raises the overall qualification rate of processed wafers. For semiconductor fabs looking to improve yields with maximum quality control, this state of performance makes the silicon boat an appealing option.

Silicon offers good stability and mechanical strength at high temperatures, allowing the boat to serve reliably during repeated furnace cycles. The material resists warping during heating and cooling cycles, and thus, maintains precise wafer placement and positioning tolerance even during rapid furnace cycles. This thermal robustness provides dependable process results that are consistent enough for high volume production with minimal variation between runs. The Silicon Wafer Boat is constructed with high dimensional precision to ensure consistent wafer positioning and placement. The boat is fabricated using advanced machining and polishing to create smooth surfaces, close geometry and tight tolerances.