High-Purity Aluminum Enhances, Enables and Protects Vital Infrastructure
AlumiPlate® electroplated aluminum provides superior corrosion protection with less contamination, reduced scrap, lower maintenance costs and extended service life.
The high-purity aluminum coating forms a dense, defect-free aluminum layer that provides reliable protection, even in high-temperature fluorine and chlorine plasma environments. Unlike line-of-sight processes, electroplated aluminum deposits conformally over complex geometries and internal features. The plating can be uniformly deposited to precise thicknesses, making it an ideal solution for challenging semiconductor fabrication equipment hardware, gas distribution plates, and solar manufacturing components, where durability, cleanliness, and consistent performance are critical.
Precision and Purity
Semiconductor fabrication demands extreme material purity as device geometries continue to shrink — from today’s 5 – 7 nm nodes toward next-generation targets near 2.5 nm. At these scales, trace contamination can impact device performance and yield. As a result, the purity and integrity of materials and coatings used in process equipment become critical. High-purity, defect-free coatings, such as electroplated aluminum, play a vital role in maintaining clean process environments, maximizing wafer yield, and extending the operational life of critical semiconductor components.
High-purity electroplated aluminum yields a dense, defect-free barrier coating that protects semiconductor fabrication equipment from corrosion and oxidation in plasma-intensive etch, ash, and deposition processes. The pore-free aluminum plating minimizes contamination, suppresses particle generation, and prevents substrate diffusion, enabling a cleaner process environment, higher wafer yields, and longer tool life.
Anodized electroplated aluminum provides a higher-performance oxide layer compared to anodized aluminum alloys due to its higher purity and fully dense, void-free structure. The absence of alloying elements eliminates inclusions and defects in the anodized layer, resulting in a more uniform, pore-free aluminum oxide with superior corrosion resistance (as demonstrated by HCl bubble testing) and higher dielectric strength. Aluminum electroplating also enables the formation of high-quality anodized aluminum oxide on silicon, aluminum alloys and non-aluminum substrates, extending the benefits of advanced anodic and electrochemical oxides to materials that cannot be anodized directly.
Independent testing has confirmed that aluminum plating leads to longer life of critical semiconductor etching and deposition process components, facilitating the migration to reduced integrated circuit sizes.
As semiconductor equipment evolves, the demand for even purer aluminum and alumina coatings will grow. AlumiPlate’s high-purity aluminum coatings offer superior performance, while promoting optimal yields, and minimal defects in integrated circuit manufacturing. Electroplated aluminum stands ready to safeguard both current and next-generation platforms.
Benefits of Electroplated High-Purity Aluminum
Exceptional Purity
Our coating is typically greater than 99.99% pure, ensuring optimal performance and compatibility with various processes.
Corrosion Resistance
Pure electroplated aluminum is compatible with fluorine and chlorine plasmas. It effectively protects and extends the lifespan of materials such as aluminum alloys, copper alloys, ferrous alloys, high temperature alloys such as stainless steels and nickel alloys.
Diffusion Barrier
The thin and dense aluminum coating acts as a diffusion barrier. The plating prevents migration of substrate elements and inter-diffusion of materials, thereby mitigating contamination in the chamber processing environment.
Plasma Recombination
Due to its high thermal conductivity, pure electroplated aluminum can be strategically deposited on stainless steels. The coating helps dissipate excess heat generated during plasma recombination processes.
Uniform Deposition
The coating can be uniformly deposited to any desired thickness, ensuring consistent protection across critical surfaces that meet the requirements of various applications
Anodization of Any Material
High-purity aluminum plating allows anodizing on virtually any material, including silicon. It combines the best properties of non-anodizable substrates with the surface properties of pure alumina.
High Temperature Capabilities
High-purity aluminum helps dissipate heat and prevents corrosion from plasmas. Electroplated aluminum withstands long-term exposure temperatures of up to 300 °C, and intermittent exposure of 400 °C.
Insulation Properties of AlumiPlate® High-Purity Electroplated Aluminum
For applications requiring electrical insulation, aluminum electroplating can be converted into aluminum oxide through anodic oxidation (anodization) or plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO), also known as micro-arc oxidation (MAO). Alumina from electroplated aluminum exhibits superior structure with less voids and impurities than alumina from less pure aluminum alloys.
Anodized electroplated aluminum coating offers protection at unprecedented levels with very high corrosion resistance and dielectric strength. Breakdown voltages measure in excess of 2,000 volts per 0.001 inch of aluminum oxide coating layer thickness.
Find out more about the characterization of anodized high-purity aluminum by reading our technical report.
Upcoming Developments
AlumiPlate is developing a high temperature inter-metallic coating using high-purity aluminum. High-purity aluminum can be diffused into high-temperature ferrous alloys to form an aluminide coating that is resistant to corrosion, exhibits high wear capability and withstands temperatures up to 1100 °C.
Please contact us for more information on this exciting development.