Abstract
Silicon carbide (SiC) which has excellent heat resistance and mechanical properties, have been already commercialized as high temperature structural material, has attracted attention in recent years as a heater used in the semiconductor manufacturing process. However, in order to apply a sintered body of SiC heater 104 to 105ohm cm, it is necessary to decrease the resistance below 100 ohm cm. Generally it is performed a method to make a low second phase particle of the electrical resistance composition more than 30vol. % to lower the electrical resistance of ceramics, but it becomes the problem that the addition of a large quantity of second phase pollutes a semiconductor. However, by using the grain boundary phase in the sintered body as a conductive pathway, it is considered to be possible to lower the electrical resistance by small amounts of a conductive grain boundary phase. Therefore, we try to reduce the electrical resistivity of SiC ceramics by forming a conductive grain boundary phase which synthesized by heat treatment of a mixture of rare-earth oxides and carbon.
