Semiconductor products demand an exceptionally clean production environment to ensure zero contamination. Manufacturing is carried out in highly controlled cleanrooms, where workers wear anti-static garments to prevent particulate and electrostatic discharge.
Semiconductors are extremely delicate—some wafers are ultra-thin, measuring only fractions of a millimeter or even thinner—making gentle handling essential. Throughout processing, all handling tools, fixtures, and containers that come into contact with semiconductor components must meet stringent standards. These tools must not contaminate wafers and must also withstand exposure to acids, alkalis, and thermal treatment, ensuring long-term durability.
Material Selection:
Most semiconductor robotic arms are made from 99% alumina ceramic.
Properties of Alumina Ceramic:
Alumina ceramic, a structural ceramic, has a hardness second only to diamond and significantly outperforms steel and chrome steel in wear resistance. It offers high-temperature tolerance (up to 1600 °C), excellent wear and corrosion resistance, low friction, and a lightweight structure—making it ideal for semiconductor applications.
Naming & Function:
These alumina ceramic robotic arms, also known as ceramic forks or wafer transfer end effectors, are components mounted on wafer-handling robots. They function as the “hands” of the robot, securely transferring silicon wafers to designated positions. Since they come into direct contact with wafers, their lightweight nature helps reduce the load on robotic equipment, extending service life.
Types of Ceramic Robotic Arms:
Clamping type
Support type
Vacuum suction type
Bernoulli type
Powder Preparation: High-purity alumina powder undergoes spray granulation to form spherical granules.
Forming: The granules are dry-pressed to create a green body, which is further shaped using cold isostatic pressing.
Densification: The shaped body is sintered at high temperatures, removing voids between particles and forming a dense ceramic solid.
Grinding & Surface Processing: Rotary grinding wheels remove surface oxides and impurities.
Precision Machining: Inner and outer surface grinding further refines the part. CNC machining ensures dimensional accuracy and surface smoothness.
The ceramic arm incorporates air channels and vent grooves. When vacuum is applied, it creates suction to grip semiconductor parts gently—avoiding mechanical stress, scratches, or chipping of thin wafers.
Superior Corrosion Resistance: Ceramic arms withstand both acidic and alkaline environments better than metal arms, offering longer service life during semiconductor processing.
Non-Contaminating: Ceramics do not react with other substances, leave no fine particles, carry no residual static charge, and release no metal ions—ensuring wafers remain uncontaminated.
Minimal Heat Deformation: During thermal treatments, ceramic arms maintain their shape better than metals, reducing deformation of delicate semiconductor components.
Beyond wafer-handling robotic arms, ceramics’ properties—insulation, high-temperature resistance, acid and alkali resistance, and chemical stability—make them ideal for manufacturing other critical components used in harsh environments. They can be utilized in situations where metals and plastics fail, ensuring performance and cleanliness in demanding semiconductor processes.
Semiconductor products demand an exceptionally clean production environment to ensure zero contamination. Manufacturing is carried out in highly controlled cleanrooms, where workers wear anti-static garments to prevent particulate and electrostatic discharge.
Semiconductors are extremely delicate—some wafers are ultra-thin, measuring only fractions of a millimeter or even thinner—making gentle handling essential. Throughout processing, all handling tools, fixtures, and containers that come into contact with semiconductor components must meet stringent standards. These tools must not contaminate wafers and must also withstand exposure to acids, alkalis, and thermal treatment, ensuring long-term durability.
Material Selection:
Most semiconductor robotic arms are made from 99% alumina ceramic.
Properties of Alumina Ceramic:
Alumina ceramic, a structural ceramic, has a hardness second only to diamond and significantly outperforms steel and chrome steel in wear resistance. It offers high-temperature tolerance (up to 1600 °C), excellent wear and corrosion resistance, low friction, and a lightweight structure—making it ideal for semiconductor applications.
Naming & Function:
These alumina ceramic robotic arms, also known as ceramic forks or wafer transfer end effectors, are components mounted on wafer-handling robots. They function as the “hands” of the robot, securely transferring silicon wafers to designated positions. Since they come into direct contact with wafers, their lightweight nature helps reduce the load on robotic equipment, extending service life.
Types of Ceramic Robotic Arms:
Clamping type
Support type
Vacuum suction type
Bernoulli type
Powder Preparation: High-purity alumina powder undergoes spray granulation to form spherical granules.
Forming: The granules are dry-pressed to create a green body, which is further shaped using cold isostatic pressing.
Densification: The shaped body is sintered at high temperatures, removing voids between particles and forming a dense ceramic solid.
Grinding & Surface Processing: Rotary grinding wheels remove surface oxides and impurities.
Precision Machining: Inner and outer surface grinding further refines the part. CNC machining ensures dimensional accuracy and surface smoothness.
The ceramic arm incorporates air channels and vent grooves. When vacuum is applied, it creates suction to grip semiconductor parts gently—avoiding mechanical stress, scratches, or chipping of thin wafers.
Superior Corrosion Resistance: Ceramic arms withstand both acidic and alkaline environments better than metal arms, offering longer service life during semiconductor processing.
Non-Contaminating: Ceramics do not react with other substances, leave no fine particles, carry no residual static charge, and release no metal ions—ensuring wafers remain uncontaminated.
Minimal Heat Deformation: During thermal treatments, ceramic arms maintain their shape better than metals, reducing deformation of delicate semiconductor components.
Beyond wafer-handling robotic arms, ceramics’ properties—insulation, high-temperature resistance, acid and alkali resistance, and chemical stability—make them ideal for manufacturing other critical components used in harsh environments. They can be utilized in situations where metals and plastics fail, ensuring performance and cleanliness in demanding semiconductor processes.
