Contribution to Digital Social Infrastructure
Approach
Digital technologies are transforming society and industry through advances in communications, semiconductors, and data utilization. In the NGK Group Vision: Road to 2050, the NGK Group identified carbon neutrality and the digital society as social issues it should address with 2050 in mind. A digital society cannot function without physical infrastructure that offers high reliability and stability. Leveraging its unique ceramic technologies, we support digital social infrastructure by supplying key materials and components for semiconductor manufacturing, information and communications devices, and data centers.
As digitalization advances, the importance of these materials continues to grow. We therefore position contribution in this area as one of our material issues. As the digital society evolves, information processing becomes more advanced and digital devices become more sophisticated, increasing the need for stable operation and reliable quality. We continue to refine its proprietary ceramic technologies and provide products that meet these social needs.
Through technologies and value creation that respond to changes in society, we aim to fulfill its role as a company that supports the foundations of the digital society while achieving both sustainable business growth and solutions to social issues.
Products Supporting Digital Social Infrastructure
Products Supporting Semiconductor Manufacturing
The NGK Group contributes to semiconductor manufacturing processes that demand high quality through a diverse range of products.
Ceramic Heaters
As semiconductor manufacturing processes become more advanced, manufacturers need temperature-control components that operate reliably even in harsh environments, including high voltages and corrosive gases. Ceramic heaters stabilize temperature inside deposition equipment and support process reproducibility and stable operation.
The NGK Group’s ceramic heaters offer strong corrosion resistance and uniform thermal conductivity. These strengths enable stable performance even in severe operating environments, making them increasingly important as demand grows for semiconductors used in AI and other applications.
Electrostatic Chucks
In semiconductor manufacturing, product quality depends on keeping wafers securely in place and reproducing processing conditions with high precision. Electrostatic chucks hold wafers in place with electrostatic force during the etching process and serve as the foundation for stable processing.
The NGK Group’s electrostatic chucks can handle a wide temperature range and offer excellent corrosion resistance, enabling them to maintain stable holding force even in harsh environments. As a result, they support high-precision etching even in processes where higher integration is progressing through finer structures and multilayering.
Translucent Alumina Ceramics
In semiconductors for AI applications, chiplet integration—which combines computing units, memory, and other functions at high density and high performance—has become increasingly important. Packaging is required to integrate chiplets.
The NGK Group’s translucent alumina ceramics serves as a support wafer that temporarily holds semiconductor chips during chiplet integration, where multiple small semiconductor chips are combined to achieve high performance. Made from high-purity alumina and using translucent alumina material with reduced impurities and pores, it offers low warpage, translucency, and chemical resistance. These characteristics contribute to stable operation and improved yield in advanced semiconductor packaging processes, support the mass production of high-performance semiconductors, and help build the foundations of the digital society.
Products that Support Smartphone Communication Quality
Bonded Wafers
In smartphones, technology development is accelerating toward Beyond 5G, the next stage after 5G (fifth-generation mobile communications systems). In these communications, radio waves are divided into many narrow channels, so it is essential to block noise and pass only radio waves of specific frequencies. As a result, filter performance directly affects communication quality. The frequency of the radio waves that pass through a filter is determined by the spacing of the filter electrodes. During operation, however, temperatures rise, thermal expansion widens the electrode spacing, and communication quality declines.
The NGK Group’s bonded wafers use silicon, which is less prone to thermal expansion, to suppress changes in electrode spacing and help stabilize the communication quality of smartphones, which are an important part of social infrastructure.
Products that Support Higher-Capacity Data Storage
Piezoceramic Actuators
In the digital society, storage devices that stably record and read vast amounts of data function as social infrastructure. These devices require extremely precise positioning control to handle information accurately.
The NGK Group’s piezoceramic actuator is built into storage devices and controls fine movement with high precision, supporting higher-capacity data storage. Even as data density increases, it helps improve the reliability of the digital society by enabling stable recording and readout.
Products that Support Optical Communications Networks
Packages for Optical Communications
As the volume of data exchanged on the Internet increases, optical communications equipment must operate faster and without interruption. Optical Packages are key components that protect lasers, photodetectors, and other parts that convert light into electrical signals from the external environment and support the stable operation of optical communications equipment. Leveraging its multilayer packaging technology for High Temperature Co-fired Ceramics (HTCC), the NGK Group provides ceramic packages that combine compact size, high reliability, and high performance. By expanding the supply of packages for faster communications and wider bandwidths, we support increasingly advanced optical communications networks.
