Vios Produces Aluminum Wafer Chucks for Semiconductor Test Equipment

Challenge

A semiconductor test equipment manufacturer partnered with Vios to produce an ultra-thin 6061 aluminum alloy wafer chuck designed to secure 8-inch silicon wafers during electrical inspection. The primary engineering challenge involved managing severe structural deformation on thin-walled circular components during precision milling. Furthermore, micro vacuum holes and concentric suction grooves demanded sub-micron precision, as any slight surface flatness defect would result in vacuum leakage, wafer displacement, and critical signal drift during high-precision wafer testing routines.

Solution

To overcome these stringent manufacturing requirements, Vios engineers implemented a comprehensive precision machining strategy:

Deformation Control:Combined high-precision 5-axis CNC milling with ultra-precision lapping processes. We integrated segmented stress-relief thermal annealing throughout the manufacturing cycle to effectively eliminate internal material stress and prevent thermal distortion.

Tight Tolerances: Maintained ±0.005 mm tolerances for all surface micro vacuum holes and concentric suction grooves, achieving surface roughness of Ra ≤ 0.4 μm.

Rigorous Quality Assurance: Executed 100% Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) full inspection across all critical dimensions and verified surface profile flatness prior to final surface finishing.

Results

Batch Delivery: Successfully produced and delivered 260 units.

Superior Quality Standard: Achieved an impressive 99.3% dimensional pass rate across all delivered production lots.

Flawless Field Performance: Recorded zero vacuum leakage or wafer shifting issues during ongoing customer production, stably matching automated probe test lines for long-term equipment supply.