New technology and application development of alkoxide-derived high purity alumina

High purity alumina, alumina with a purity of 99.99% or higher, has been widely used for various applications, for instance, ceramics, thermally conductive fillers, battery materials and sapphire single crystals. Among several manufacturing methods for high purity alumina, we have established mass-production technology using hydrolysis of aluminum alkoxide. In some applications of high purity alumina, there are technical problems to be solved. Two applications are described in this article. First, higher mechanical strength and corrosion resistance are required for ceramic parts of semiconductor manufacturing equipments. In order to obtain these properties, we have developed nano-sized α-alumina which has round and uniform particle shape with sharp particle size distribution. This alumina, NXA-150, can be sintered at a low temperature. Second, in the thermal interface material application, demands for electrical insulating and thermally conductive fillers are increasing. We have developed large size alumina (260 μm) which can reduce filler/resin interface and increase thermal conductivity of filler/resin composites. [Figure not available: see fulltext.].