Technology has been developed to reduce contaminant particles inside semiconductor equipment, which is expected to lengthen the replacement cycle of ceramic components in the future.

The Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS, President Lee Jung-hwan), a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT, announced on the 22nd that the research team of Dr. Ma Ho-jin and Dr. Park Young-jo of the Engineering Ceramics Laboratory recently succeeded in developing a new composition and process technology for plasma-resistant ceramic nanocomposites that reduces contaminant particles inside semiconductor manufacturing equipment for the first time in Korea.

A typical semiconductor process is an etching process using plasma.

During this process, not only the silicon wafer but also the internal components of the equipment are exposed to plasma, which frequently generates contaminant particles and causes chip defects.

Frequent replacement of ceramic components, which account for more than 90% of the internal materials of equipment, is a major cause of lowering semiconductor productivity.

Instead of using conventional single-composition ceramics, the research team used nanocomposites to synthesize yttria-magnesia (Y2O3-MgO) material into 10-nanometer (nm)-sized particles, and produced a 100%-density, fully dense body using a nonporous dense body sintering process technology.

The lower the etching rate, the better the material, but the developed nanocomposite only had a 6.5% etching rate compared to sapphire, and only about 40% compared to yttria (Y2O3), which is known to have the best plasma resistance.

In addition, the research team analyzed the surface changes that appear after plasma etching according to the crystal grain size and porosity in the microstructure of the nanocomposite, and found that nanocomposites with fine and uniform microstructure distribution have excellent etching resistance and small surface roughness changes. I confirmed that I brought it.

Senior Researcher Ma Ho-jin of the Materials Research Institute said, “Among the semiconductor manufacturing processes, the etching process is dominated by equipment and parts from the U.S. and Japan for over 90%, and China is rapidly catching up.” He continued, “This research result is a representative case of developing the world’s best plasma-resistant material using domestic technology, and we expect it to become the cornerstone for localizing parts through material independence.”

This research was conducted with the support of the Ministry of Science and ICT's 'Nano and Materials Technology Development Project (National Core Materials Research Group)', and the Materials Research Institute transferred this technology to Mactech Co., Ltd. (CEO Kim Byeong-hak).

Meanwhile, the results of the study were published on September 22, 2022 in the international academic journal 'ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (IF: 10.383)' published by the American Chemical Society (ACS) through joint research with the research team of Dr. Hyochang Lee of the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science.