The Application of Quartz Components in Semiconductor Equipment

Quartz products are widely used in the semiconductor manufacturing process due to their high purity, high-temperature resistance, and strong chemical stability.

1.Quartz Crucible

Application - It is used for drawing monocrystalline silicon rods and is a core consumable in silicon wafer manufacturing.

Quartz crucibles are made of high-purity quartz sand (4N8 grade and above) to reduce contamination by metal impurities. It should have high-temperature stability (melting point >1700°C) and a low coefficient of thermal expansion. Quartz crucibles in the semiconductor field are mainly used for the manufacturing of silicon single crystals. They are consumable quartz containers for loading polycrystalline silicon raw materials and can be divided into square and round types. Square ones are used for the casting of polycrystalline silicon ingots, while round ones are used for the drawing of monocrystalline silicon rods. It can withstand high temperatures and maintain chemical stability, ensuring the purity and quality of silicon single crystals.

2. Quartz Furnace Tubes

Quartz tubes are widely used in the semiconductor industry due to their characteristics such as high-temperature resistance (long-term operating temperature can reach over 1100°C), chemical corrosion resistance (stable except for a few reagents like hydrofluoric acid), high purity (impurity content can be as low as ppm or even ppb level), and excellent light transmittance (especially against ultraviolet rays). The core scenarios are concentrated in multiple key process links of wafer manufacturing.

Main application links: diffusion, oxidation, CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition)

Purpose:

• Diffusion tube: Used in high-temperature diffusion processes, it carries silicon wafers for doping.
• Furnace tube: Supports quartz boats in the oxidation furnace for high-temperature oxidation treatment.

Features：

It must meet the requirements of high purity (metal ion ≤1ppm) and high-temperature deformation resistance (above 1200°C).

3. Quartz Crystal Boat

Depending on different equipment, it is divided into vertical and horizontal types. Depending on different fab production lines, the size range is 4 to 12 inches. In the manufacturing of semiconductor ics, quartz crystal boats are mainly used in the processes of wafer transfer, cleaning and processing. As high-purity and high-temperature resistant wafer carriers, they play an indispensable role. In the diffusion or oxidation process of the furnace tube, multiple wafers are placed on quartz crystal boats and then pushed into the furnace tube for batch manufacturing.

Injectors in semiconductors are mainly used for precisely transporting gas or liquid materials and are applied in multiple key process links such as thin film deposition, etching, and doping.

In the cleaning process of silicon transistor and integrated circuit production, it is used to carry silicon wafers and needs to be acid and alkali resistant to ensure that the silicon wafers are not contaminated during the cleaning process.

6. Quartz Flanges, Quartz Rings, Focusing Rings, etc

It is used in semiconductor etching processes, combined with other quartz products to achieve a sealed protection of the cavity, closely surrounding the wafer, preventing various types of contamination during the etching manufacturing process, and playing a protective role.

Quartz bell jars are key components commonly used in the semiconductor industry, featuring high-temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, and high light transmittance.Polysilicon reduction furnace cover: The quartz bell cover is mainly used as the reduction furnace cover for polysilicon. In the production of polysilicon, high-purity trichlorosilane is mixed with hydrogen in a certain proportion and then introduced into the reduction furnace equipped with a quartz bell cover, where a reduction reaction occurs on the conductive silicon core to deposit and form polysilicon.

8. Quartz Wet Cleaning Tank

Application stage: Wet Cleaning of silicon wafers

Usage: It is used for acid washing (HF, H₂SO₄, etc.) and ultrasonic cleaning.

Features: Strong chemical stability and resistance to strong acid corrosion.

9. Quartz Liquid Collection Bottle

The liquid collection bottle is mainly used for collecting waste liquid or residual liquid in the wet cleaning process

During the wet cleaning process of wafers (such as RCA cleaning, SC1/SC2 cleaning), a large amount of ultrapure water or reagents are needed to rinse the wafers, and after rinsing, residual liquid containing trace impurities will be produced. After some coating processes (such as photoresist coating), there will also be excess liquids (such as photoresist waste liquid) that need to be collected.

Function Quartz liquid collection bottles are used to closely collect these residual or waste liquids, especially in the "high-precision cleaning step" (such as the pre-treatment stage of the wafer surface), where the residual liquid may still contain a small amount of high-value reagents or impurities that need subsequent analysis. The low contamination of quartz bottles can prevent the residual liquid from being re-contaminated, facilitating subsequent recovery (such as reagent purification) or precise detection (such as analysis of impurity content in the residual liquid).

In addition, quartz masks made of synthetic quartz materials are applied in photolithography as the "negatives" of photolithography machines for pattern transfer. And the quartz crystal oscillators used in thin film deposition (PVD, CVD, ALD) to monitor the thickness of the thin film and ensure the uniformity of deposition, among many other aspects, are not elaborated in this article.

In conclusion, quartz products are almost present throughout the entire process of semiconductor manufacturing, from the growth of monocrystalline silicon (quartz crucibles) to photolithography (quartz masks), etching (quartz rings), and thin film deposition (quartz crystal oscillators), all of which rely on their excellent physical and chemical properties. With the evolution of semiconductor processes, the requirements for the purity, temperature resistance and dimensional accuracy of quartz materials will be further enhanced.