Get to know the common application technologies for semiconductor process equipment.

Semiconductor Technology

Common Silicon Wafer Production Process

Silicon is widely found in nature in the form of silicates or silicon dioxide in rocks and sand. The manufacturing of silicon wafers involves three main steps: silicon refining and purification, single crystal silicon growth, and wafer shaping.

It takes about ten semiconductor equipment to produce a silicon wafer, including single crystal furnace, epitaxial reactor, oxidation furnace, magnetron sputtering station, chemical mechanical polishing machine, lithography machine, ion implantation machine, wire bonding machine, wafer sawing machine, and wafer thinning machine. In fact, the lithography machine is just a drop in the bucket.

Specialty gases are indispensable in the industry, participating in every stage of the supply chain. They are vital to the entire silicon wafer manufacturing process, hence the nickname "the blood of semiconductors." Semiconductor equipment has stringent requirements for specialty gases, necessitating a stable supply system. Gasperk Gas Applications has 13 years of experience in specialty gas supply, specializing in semiconductor specialty gas supply systems. We offer a one-stop, comprehensive service, including overall planning, professional design, material selection, professional installation, system delivery, and technical consultation.

Silicon Wafer

Common Semiconductor Industry Equipment

Monocrystalline Furnace

A single crystal furnace is a device that melts polycrystalline materials like multicrystalline silicon in an inert gas atmosphere (mainly nitrogen and helium) using a graphite heater, and then grows dislocation-free single crystal silicon through the Czochralski method. In the actual production process of single crystal silicon, it plays a crucial role in controlling the temperature and quality of the silicon crystal.

Due to factors such as temperature, pulling speed and rotation rate, crucible tracking speed, and protective gas flow rate affecting the diameter of the single crystal during growth, the temperature primarily determines crystallization success, while the speed directly impacts the intrinsic quality of the crystal. This effect can only be known after the single crystal is pulled out through testing. The main controlled aspects of the single crystal furnace include crystal diameter, silicon power control, leak rate, and argon gas quality.

Monocrystalline Furnace

2. Vapor Phase Epitaxy Furnace

The Vapor Phase Epitaxy Furnace is primarily designed to provide a specific process environment for the gas-phase epitaxial growth of silicon, enabling the growth of thin crystal layers on a single crystal that correspond to the crystal phase of the single crystal. Epitaxial growth refers to the process of growing a single crystal layer with specified properties and the same crystal orientation on a single crystal substrate (wafer), as if the original crystal has extended outward. To manufacture high-frequency, high-power devices, it is necessary to reduce the collector series resistance while also requiring the material to withstand high voltages and currents. Therefore, a thin high-resistance epitaxial layer is grown on a low-resistance substrate.

The Vapor Phase Epitaxy furnace lays the groundwork for functionalization of single crystal bottoming. Vapor Phase Epitaxy, a special process of Chemical Vapor Deposition, extends the crystal structure of a single crystal substrate and maintains a corresponding relationship with the crystal orientation of the substrate.