Al2O3-SiC ceramic composites are produced using pressureless sintering, and their plasma resistance, electrical resistance, and mechanical properties are evaluated to confirm their applicability as electrostatic-discharge-safe components for semiconductor devices. Through the addition of Mg and Y nitrate sintering aids, it is confirmed that even if SiC content exceeded 10%, complete densification is possible by pressureless sintering. By the uniform distribution of SiC, the total grain growth is suppressed to about 1 μm; thus an Al2O3-SiC sintered body with a high strength over 600 MPa is obtained. The optimum amount of SiC to satisfy all the desired properties of electrostaticdischarge-safe ceramic components is obtained by finding the correlation between the plasma resistance and the electrical resistivity as a function of SiC amount.
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