Supply Chain Issues and Changing Market Dynamics for Aluminum Nitride Ceramic Components

May 11, 2017• Tim Dyer –VP Operations/General Manager

• Elcon Precision LLC, San Jose CA

• Sr. Technology Analyst• Techcet LLC

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Elcon Precision LLC (ISO-9001-2015)

Elcon Confidential2

• Elcon manufactures precision metallized ceramics components and assemblies

– CNC direct write metallized ceramics– Brazed assemblies – ceramic/metal and metal/metal– Resistive coatings on alumina

• Elcon photochemical etches complex metal components– Heaters, RF electrodes, and micromachines (MEMS)– Selective plating of contacts and RTDs

• Materials– Ceramics: Alumina, zirconia, sapphire, beryllium oxide, AlN– Paints: Mo/Mn, W/Mo/Mn, W, Cr/Ti, Mn/Ti, NiO, Cu inks, custom

formulations– Metals: Kovar, copper, Moly, Tungsten, stainless, Ti, others– Alloys: Cu, Si, Cusil, Au, ABA

Confidential Information• The information contained in this presentation is for the use of

Techcet’s representatives and customers or prospective customers. It is considered confidential in nature and should not be shared with others outside of the aforementioned parties. Your cooperation is much appreciated.

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Overall Semiconductor Ceramics Revenue

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Key materials:SiC, Alumina, Aluminum Nitride, Yttria, Zirconia, Boron Nitride, Silicon Nitride, Titania, etc

Ref: Techcet Ceramics Critical Material Report

• Growth in SiC and AlN advanced chamber components is presently fueling market growth• SiC is also purchased primarily for thermal applications and is replacing quartz

Aluminum Nitride Semiconductor Ceramics Supply Chain

• Raw materials– Chemical powders are commodity materials made by the Metric

ton– Made by processing and mining companies that serve multiple

markets world wide• Ceramic Suppliers

– Use raw materials to create ceramic components.– Process: Press, Green machining to near net shape, sinter, grind,

bond/fabricate• Component Markets

– OEM –Applied Materials, LAM, KLA, Veeco, Cymer, etc. • Process performance focused

– Fabs –Samsung, Cypress, Intel, Global Foundries, etc. • Process cost and performance focused

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Equipment Related AlN Market Growing Rapidly

• Market dominated by one supplier, NGK, selling to OEMS (Japan; very little direct to fab sales)• Raw powder market suffers shortages and is dominated by one supplier (Japan)• Explosion of new component suppliers due to expiring IP in heater market (Targeting Fabs)• Most new supplier activity in South Korea and USA (>5 new suppliers)

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AlN Material Properties:

• AlN is a high thermal conductivity, near dielectric, thermal shock resistant ceramic that is resistant to plasma corrosion

• Chemical purity is measured using ICPMS (impurities < ppm level)5/11/2017 Elcon and Techcet Confidential 7

Typical material composition Material for all heater parts is 100% matching Material uses only yttrium for doping

Element Atm% Wt.%

Al 40.8 55.7

N 55.0 39.0

O 3.6 2.9

Y 0.4 2.0

Typical grain structureTypical grain size 4-6 microns

Specific AlN Fabrication Challenges

• AlN is an expensive raw material due to the multiple energy intensive processing steps required to synthesize it (Tokuyama has most supply)

• Raw and sintered AlN chemically reacts with water forming ammonia gas, therefore organic solvents are required for processing powders (needs Argon sintering)– Corrosion is slow and managed using dry solvents– Hard grinding in water is possible, however it creates Ammonia Gas

• AlN has poor fracture toughness and suffers from chipping during hard grinding • AlN color is easily altered by density and compositional variances, therefore quality

control is difficult• Large pedestal heaters require significant grinding due to their odd shape (multiple Kg of

material removed) therefore costs are high

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Examples of AlN Components, Heaters, and ESCs

• AlN Components consist of nozzles, heaters, ESCs, Focus rings, and Edge rings for CVD and Etch equipment applications

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Focus Rings:

Edge Rings:

Pedestal Heater (AMAT Producer):

Electrostatic Chuck:

Electrostatic Chuck:

AlN Heaters and Chucks

• ALN is most often used to control wafer temperature in etching and CVD film deposition applications (AMAT TxZ)

• Helium backside cooling enables heat transfer to the chuck at low chamber pressures• AlN has high thermal conductivity, enabling it to have excellent thermal uniformity and

thermal shock resistance5/11/2017 Elcon and Techcet Confidential 10

Recent AlN Component Supplier Innovations

• AlN Heaters/ESCs are a stack of metal and ceramics that form an assembly

• Areas of technical development in AlN heaters/ESCs consist of– RF Electrode designs and integration processes– Advanced multi-zone heater development – Addition of multiple internal thermocouples or RTDs– Lower cost fabrication methods (Bonding, near net shape)– Ceramic manufacturing advances for surface flatness

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Pedestal RF Electrode Improvements

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• RF Antenna and/or chucking electrode is a key component• Imbedded 100 to 300 microns under the wafer • Antenna made from molybdenum or, just recently, aluminum

mesh sheet• Metal sheet is precision etched to form antenna pattern• RF antenna impedance and capacitance can be optimized for

improved film stress and deposition rate control• By optimizing mesh open area and X-Y positioning• Accurately control depth of antenna within 10 microns

• Antenna migration during high temperature fusion of the AlN stack results in RF non-uniformity (major issue)

Recent Pedestal Heater Developments

• Use of Multi-Zone heaters; with up to 16 zones • Adding multiple integrated thermocouples or RTDs • Durable heater wires created by thick film electrode deposition or etching processes

– Can be made via thin film, thick film, or photochemical etching• Improved position control of stack elements

– Better flatness of imbedded heaters/electrodes in ceramic stack relative to wafer5/11/201 Elcon and Techcet Confidential 13

Source NTK

Custom Thermal Profile Tuning by CRC Inc

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Example: CRC Standard 200mm PETEOS-type• 4500 set point• 50 Range, center hot• Chamber pressure 5 Torr, PN2 2500 sccm

Example: CRC Standard 300mm PETEOS-type• 5500 set point• 110 Range, center hot• Chamber pressure 5.5 Torr, PN2 2500 sccm

Note: Thermal profile can be adapted to compensate for chamber gas distribution shortcomings

Multiple Internal Thermocouple Integration

• Multi-zone heaters require many thermocouples

• Each thermocouple has wires that need to be accommodated in the pedestal

• Thermocouples can be cemented in, printed, etched, or direct write onto AlN ceramic.

• RTS are being considered for thermal processes like SACVD

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Source: CRC Inc

Market Changes Creating Downward Price Pressure

• Rapidly expanding ceramic supplier base should help reduce costs• Spray dried powder manufacturing capacity is still limited

– New suppliers emerging

• Many suppliers evaluating– Using photoetched heaters and glaze bonding– Direct write metallic ink deposition– Bonding metal heaters and RF electrodes at lower temperatures for improved position– Improved AlN ceramic production methods

• Hot press• Press, CNC, and LPS to near net shape shaft and wafer pedestal• Bonding pedestal shaft to heater plate• Developing AlN spray drying capabilities in the USA vs Japan

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Improved Grinding/Flatness

• Precise CNC grinding and lapping control for flatter heater plates• Using CNC Abrasive texturing for cooling gas distribution

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Source NTK

Aftermarket AlN Heaters Can Outperform OEMS

• Comparison of CRC AlN heater (A1) versus OEM heater (A2) (AMAT TXZ)• CRC Unit demonstrates improved process performance vs OEM for PETEOS

USG application (features improved heater and RF coupling designs)

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Aluminum Nitride Supply Chain Update

• Due to expiring US and Japanese IP, and an overall competitive components market, many new suppliers are entering the AlN heater market

• One larger private US company has produced its first components for a non OEM and working to develop a domestic powder source

• CRC Inc is making great progress entering the AlN heater market with key OEM and Fab discussions

• Kyocera is also aggressively trying to penetrate the AlN heater market with a group of US partners

• NGK is still the main player in AlN heaters working mostly through OEMs, not fabs

• New suppliers in South Korea and the USA will soon provide fired ceramics to the market, relieving some supply chain pressure• AMAGS, Boboo, Technetics, Oasis, Watlow, and Komico

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Summary of AlN Components Market• The >$500M AlN market is the largest spend for any ceramic

for equipment OEMS• AlN raw material remains scarce and sold by allocation

– New suppliers arriving on market will help mitigate this issue by late 2018

• ESCs and pedestal heaters are being improved by OEMs and Ceramic suppliers working with Fabs

• Non-OEM pedestal heaters can outperform existing units deployed in fabs

• AlN market anticipates rapid growth in the next 3 years as units become available directly to Fabs versus OEMs.

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Thank you

timd@elconprecision.comtimd@techcet.comPlease contact me at Techcet if you are interested in the Ceramics report

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