1.Reducing Impurities and Contamination: Under normal temperature and pressure, impurities in the environment such as dust, water vapor, and oxygen can have a severe impact on the manufacturing of semiconductor chips. For example, the presence of metal particles can lead to electrical short circuits, water vapor can affect the performance of photoresist, causing blurred photolithography patterns, and can also form an oxide layer on the chip surface, reducing chip performance and reliability. In a vacuum environment, the content of these impurities and contaminants is greatly reduced, avoiding interference in the chip manufacturing process and ensuring chip quality and performance.
2.Stabilizing Process Parameters: Many processes in semiconductor manufacturing, such as photolithography, etching, and thin-film deposition, require precise control of process parameters. In a vacuum environment, the number of gas molecules is extremely low, and the collisions between molecules are reduced, making the process more stable. This facilitates accurate control of parameters such as temperature, pressure, and gas flow rate, thereby improving the precision and consistency of chip manufacturing.
3.Preventing Material Oxidation: Semiconductor materials such as silicon are prone to oxidation reactions with oxygen in the air, forming an oxide layer that affects the performance of semiconductor devices, such as increasing contact resistance and reducing carrier mobility. A vacuum environment can prevent semiconductor materials from coming into contact with oxygen, avoiding oxidation reactions and ensuring the electrical performance of semiconductor devices.
4.Improving Thin-Film Quality: During thin-film deposition processes, such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and physical vapor deposition (PVD), materials need to be deposited onto the wafer surface in the form of atoms or molecules to form thin films. In a vacuum environment, the atoms or molecules of the deposited materials can move more freely, with fewer collisions with gas molecules, allowing for more uniform deposition on the wafer surface. This results in high-quality thin films with improved adhesion, flatness, and uniformity, which is crucial for manufacturing high-performance semiconductor devices.
5.Ensuring Special Process Effects: In some semiconductor manufacturing processes, such as ion implantation and plasma etching, specific gases are used to generate plasma or carry out chemical reactions. In a non-vacuum environment, other gases in the air may react with the process gases, affecting the generation of plasma and the progress of chemical reactions, and reducing process effectiveness and repeatability. A vacuum environment allows for precise control of the type, concentration, and flow rate of process gases, ensuring the smooth progress of the processes. Additionally, a vacuum environment can reduce light scattering and absorption during photolithography, improving the contrast and clarity of photolithography patterns; during the drying process after wafer cleaning, it can lower the boiling point of water, enabling more thorough drying of the wafer surface, avoiding the impact of water residue on chip performance, and reducing the surface tension of the wafer to prevent damage during the drying process.
Association with the Production and Machining of Showerheads
1.Role of Showerheads in Vacuum Processes: Showerheads (shower nozzles/gas distribution plates) are core components in semiconductor manufacturing. Their function is to achieve uniform injection of reaction gases through tens of thousands of micro-hole arrays on their surfaces, directly affecting the uniformity of thin-film deposition on the wafer surface, etching precision, and the stability of plasma distribution. In a vacuum environment, Showerheads can better perform their functions, ensuring uniform gas distribution and meeting the requirements of semiconductor manufacturing for process precision and stability.
2.Adaptability of Anhui Boxin Microelectronics' Showerhead Machining to Vacuum Processes: Anhui Boxin Microelectronics has achieved mass production of 12-inch Showerheads through specific processes, with a hole wall perpendicularity of 90°±0.5°, meeting the requirements of 5nm manufacturing processes. Its products are widely used in the semiconductor field and can better cooperate closely with the gas supply system, heating system, and vacuum system in a vacuum process environment. The gas supply system provides a stable gas flow rate and pressure, ensuring that the Showerhead distributes gases as required by the design; the heating system precisely controls the temperature of the reaction area, as temperature affects the flow characteristics of gases and reaction rates, which in turn affects the performance of the Showerhead; the vacuum system maintains an appropriate vacuum level, ensuring that gases can be smoothly ejected from the Showerhead and participate in reactions.
3.Challenges and Solutions of Vacuum Environment for Showerhead Machining: Showerhead machining faces challenges such as cost pressure (the unit price of femtosecond laser equipment exceeds $5 million, and the machining cost is three times that of EDM), efficiency bottlenecks (the daily production capacity of a single laser equipment is only 5 - 10 12-inch Showerheads), and material defect control (non-metal materials are prone to hidden cracks during machining, requiring non-destructive testing methods such as ultrasonic testing and X-ray computed tomography (X-CT)). In a vacuum process environment, higher precision and quality requirements are placed on the machining of Showerheads. Anhui Boxin Microelectronics has adopted technologies such as femtosecond laser cold machining to achieve high-precision machining and uses non-destructive testing techniques to ensure product quality, thereby adapting to the needs of vacuum processes.
AMTD provides high-precision Showerhead (shower nozzle/gas uniformity plate/gas distribution plate) services for core components. Its products mainly include Showerheads, Face plates, Blocker Plates, Top Plates, Shields, Liners, pumping rings, Edge Rings, and other core components of semiconductor equipment. These products are widely used in fields such as semiconductors and display panels, with excellent performance and high market recognition.
Content sources: Professional academic journals such as Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology, Integrated Circuit Manufacturing Technology, Acta Electronica Sinica, and Microelectronics.
