Electrical Resistivity Control of Hot-Pressed Aluminum Nitride Ceramics

Aluminum Nitride (AlN) ceramics are used as wafer heating plates and wafer holding electrostatic chucks in semiconductor fabrication equipments. For tailoring the electrical resistivity to satisfy the requirements of each component, several kinds of approaches were investigated for hot-pressed AlN ceramics. Three techniques to control the electrical resistivity of AlN ceramics were adopted: (1) AlN intragranular control, (2) intergranular phase control and (3) incorporation of electrically conductive second phase particles. In this paper, we introduce examples of each technique. The first one is addition of a small amount of Y2O3. The resistivity varied from 1015 Ωcm to 1010 Ωcm with the Y2O3 amount. The second one is addition of Sm2O3. The resistivity also varied from 1015 Ωcm to 1010 Ωcm with the Sm2O3 amount. The third one is incorporation of in-situ synthesized Boron Carbonitride (B-C-N). Networking of B-C-N platelets drastically decreased the resistivity to the range less than 102 Ωcm. By these techniques, it was possible to control the resistivity of AlN ceramics in a wide range with a small amount of additives.