Silicon carbide (SiC)
Silicon carbide can be made in different chemical compositions. It can be found either as lower purity grades mostly used for thermal applications or high-purity grades (sintered SiC and CVD SiC) that makes silicon carbide an advanced ceramic with exceptionnal mechanical and thermal properties.
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Microcertec offers two high-purity silicon carbide grades that are particularly suited for hostile environments :
- sintered silicon carbide
- CVD silicon carbide
Both SiC materials are mainly designed to be used in thermal-mechanical or corrosion-resistance applications because they show an outstanding behaviour to resist to wear, thermal shocks and corrosion (liquids and gases). Moreover, these pure SiC grades offer a high thermal conductivity, in the range of 120 to 160 W/m.K for sintered silicon carbide and 250 W/m.K for CVD SiC.
Sintered silicon carbide and CVC SiC have the following properties :
- low density
- excellent thermal shock resistance
- excellent wear resistance
- excellent corrosion resistance (liquids and gas)
- low coefficient of thermal expansion
- high thermal conductivity
- electrical conductivity
Sintered silicon carbide is a ceramic material widely used in the following applications :
- tube and ring faces for mechanical seals
- pump and valve components
- wafer end-effectors and chuck or heat plates for semicon processing equipment