Electronics and Semiconductors

Advanced ceramic materials such as Alumina (Al₂O₃), Zirconia (ZrO₂), Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Silicon Nitride (Si₃N₄) play an indispensable role in the electronics and semiconductor fields. They are key building blocks for achieving high performance, miniaturization, and high reliability in devices.

Core Application Comparison Summary Table

Alumina is the most widely used and technologically mature electronic ceramic, primarily serving its insulation, support, and heat dissipation functions.

Applications:

Integrated Circuit (IC) Packages and Substrates: Serves as a chip's package substrate, providing electrical connections, mechanical protection, and heat dissipation. This is its most traditional and core application.
Direct Bonded Copper (DBC) Substrates: Copper foil is bonded to alumina ceramic at high temperatures, creating an insulating and thermally conductive substrate. It is widely used in the packaging of power devices such as insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) and lasers (LDs).
HTCC (High-Temperature Co-fired Ceramic): Used to manufacture high-reliability multilayer ceramic substrates, it is widely used in aerospace, military electronics, and other fields.
RF/Microwave Windows: Used in microwave tubes and vacuum electronic devices, they allow microwave signals to pass through while maintaining airtightness.

Advantages: 

Low cost, mature manufacturing process, excellent insulation, and high mechanical strength.

ZrO₂'s applications in electronics primarily leverage its ionic conductivity and excellent mechanical properties.

Applications:

Oxygen Sensors: Yttrium-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) is an excellent oxygen ion conductor used in automotive exhaust sensors and industrial combustion control sensors, optimizing combustion efficiency by detecting oxygen concentration.
Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs): As the core electrolyte material in SOFCs, it conducts oxygen ions at high temperatures to generate electricity.
Consumer Electronics Structural Components: Leveraging its high toughness (impact resistance), wear resistance, and aesthetically pleasing appearance, it is used in smartphone back panels, smartwatch cases, and other applications, providing structural support and electromagnetic shielding while enhancing the product's quality.

Advantages: 

Ionic conductivity, high fracture toughness, wear resistance, and aesthetically pleasing appearance.

Silicon carbide plays a dual role: as a semiconductor material and as a specialty ceramic material. Its semiconductor applications are currently the most eye-catching.

Applications (as a semiconductor):

High-power power electronics devices: Manufacturing SiC MOSFETs, SiC Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs), and other components. These are used in electric vehicle drive systems, on-board chargers (OBCs), DC fast charging stations, photovoltaic inverters, and industrial motor drives.
High-temperature electronics: Operating at extremely high temperatures (>300°C), they are used in extreme environments such as aerospace and earth drilling.
RF devices: Used in 5G base station radio frequency units, they enable higher frequencies and powers.

Applications (as a ceramic material):

Semiconductor manufacturing process components: Used in the manufacture of wafer trays, paddles, and reflectors. Due to their high hardness, high-temperature resistance, and thermal shock resistance, they can withstand the harsh semiconductor manufacturing environment. High-end heat dissipation substrates: Although costly and difficult to process, their ultra-high thermal conductivity makes them useful for heat dissipation in certain specialized high-power density devices.

Advantages (as a semiconductor): Wide bandgap, high breakdown field strength, high thermal conductivity, and high electron saturation velocity enable high-efficiency, high-frequency, and high-temperature operation.

Silicon nitride boasts exceptionally high comprehensive properties, particularly its flexural strength and thermal shock resistance (resistance to rapid temperature changes), which are among the best of all ceramics.

Applications:

AMB Ceramic Copper-Clad Substrates: This is its most important and fastest-growing application. Copper foil is bonded to silicon nitride ceramic using the active metal brazing (AMB) process. Due to its exceptional strength, toughness, and unparalleled thermal shock resistance, it has become the substrate material of choice for high-power IGBT modules in electric vehicles and new energy applications. It can withstand the thermal stresses of intense power cycling, ensuring decades of module reliability.
High-Performance Circuit Substrates: Used as chip carriers and heat sinks in aerospace and military electronics applications requiring high reliability.
Insulated Bearing Balls: Used in high-speed bearings in electric vehicle motors, they provide electrical insulation to prevent electrical corrosion while offering long life and high reliability.

Advantages: 

Highest mechanical strength, excellent thermal shock resistance, good thermal conductivity, and robust insulation.

In short, advanced ceramics have evolved from simple "insulating materials" to "enabling materials" for the electronics and semiconductor industries. They are ubiquitous in everything from passive components to active devices, from chip carriers to manufacturing tools, and are an indispensable cornerstone of modern high-tech industries.