What is a Semiconductor Target

Among various types of targets, semiconductor targets have the highest technical requirements, with purity requirements typically exceeding 5N5, and also have extremely high requirements for dimensional precision

Sputtering target materials for semiconductors

The semiconductor chip industry is one of the main application fields for metal sputtering targets, and it is also the field with the highest requirements for the composition, organization, and performance of the targets. Specifically, the manufacturing process of semiconductor chips can be divided into three major stages: silicon wafer manufacturing, wafer manufacturing, and chip packaging. Among them, metal sputtering targets are required in both wafer manufacturing and chip packaging stages

The function of metal sputtering targets for semiconductor chips is to create metal wires for transmitting information on the chip. The specific sputtering process involves first using high-speed ion currents to bombard the surfaces of different types of metal sputtering targets under high vacuum conditions, causing atoms on the surface of various targets to deposit layer by layer on the surface of the semiconductor chip, and then using a special processing process, Etching the metal film deposited on the surface of the chip into nanoscale metal wires, connecting billions of micro transistors inside the chip to each other, thereby serving as a signal transmission device

The metal sputtering targets used in the semiconductor chip industry mainly include high-purity sputtering targets such as copper, tantalum, aluminum, titanium, cobalt, and tungsten, as well as sputtering targets of alloys such as nickel platinum and tungsten titanium. Aluminum and copper are the mainstream processes in semiconductor production. There are two wire processes in the conductive layer of chip production, aluminum and copper. Generally, aluminum wires are used above the 110nm wafer technology node, and titanium materials are usually used as barrier layer thin film materials; Copper wires are used below the 110nm wafer technology node, usually using tantalum material as the barrier layer for copper wires. In chip application scenarios, advanced processes such as copper and tantalum materials need to be used to reduce power consumption and improve computational speed, as well as aluminum and titanium materials above 110nm node processes to ensure reliability and anti-interference performance

Introduction to Semiconductor Target Materials

Copper target conductive layer, a high-purity copper material with low resistance, is highly effective in improving chip integration. Therefore, it is widely used as a wiring material in technology sections below 110nm

Tantalum target barrier layer, high-purity tantalum target is mainly used on high-end semiconductor chips below 90nm on 12 inch wafers

Aluminum target conductive layer, high-purity aluminum target is widely used in the production of semiconductor chip conductive layer, but due to its response speed, it is rarely used in technology nodes below 110nm

Titanium target - barrier layer, high-purity titanium targets are mainly used on 8-inch wafer 130 and 180nm technology nodes

Cobalt target contact layer can form a thin film with the silicon layer on the chip surface, providing contact effect

Tungsten targets - mainly used in the field of semiconductor chip memory

Tungsten titanium alloy target contact layer, due to its low electron mobility and other advantages, can be used as a contact layer material in gate circuits of chips

The nickel platinum alloy target contact layer can form a thin film with the silicon layer on the chip surface, playing a contact role

Working principle of semiconductor targets