In the heart of the Yangtze River Delta, by the shore of Taihu Lake, a technology enterprise named Prim Semiconductor is making waves in the semiconductor equipment and precision manufacturing sector with its unique technological approach. This company, dedicated to the research and development of core components for high-end equipment, has provided a vivid example of the breakthrough of domestic production in nanometer-level precision manufacturing with a technical combination of "fixture plate - precision motion stage - air-float rotating shaft - ceramic plate fork". When we dissect these seemingly independent technological modules, we find that they all point to one goal - to redefine the precision boundaries of semiconductor manufacturing within a tiny space. 

Fixture Plate: The "Microscopic Stage" in Semiconductor Manufacturing

In semiconductor manufacturing, the positioning and fixation of wafers, photomasks, and precision components are the first steps in all processes. Traditional fixture plates are mostly made of metal or engineering plastics, but in processes below 5nm, issues such as thermal deformation, micro-vibration, and surface particle contamination can render an entire batch of chips unusable. The engineers at Primus realized that the fixture plate is not only a "supporting platform" but also a "precision sensor" - it needs to engage in a "physical dialogue" with the object being processed. 

Prim's second-generation semiconductor fixture plate adopts a "gradient composite structure": the bottom layer is a granite base that has undergone ultra-precision grinding, providing a stable reference for the entire structure with an extremely low flatness of 0.002mm/m²; the middle layer is embedded with a temperature compensation module, which, through distributed thermocouples and micro-temperature controllers, keeps the coefficient of thermal expansion within 1×10⁻⁶/℃; the top layer is a titanium alloy panel treated with chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), with a surface roughness of Ra<0.01μm. Combined with a hybrid fixation scheme of vacuum adsorption and elastic pins, it not only avoids mechanical stress damage but also improves the wafer positioning accuracy to ±0.5μm. This "rigid yet flexible" design enables Prim's fixture plate to have a flatness drift of only one-third of the industry average during high and low temperature cycling tests. 

Precision Motion Stage: The "Chinese Core" of Nanometer-level Movement

If the fixture plate is the "stage" of semiconductor manufacturing, then the precision motion stage is the "spotlight on the stage" - it needs to carry the wafer or process head and complete nanometer-level positioning, scanning and alignment in three-dimensional space. Prim's design of the precision motion stage has broken through the traditional "stacked architecture" of linear motor + air bearing, and instead adopted an integrated solution of "direct drive + air floatation + grating". 

The core of it is an integrated linear drive unit: the stator of the voice coil motor is directly integrated into the body of the motion stage, eliminating the intermediate transmission link rod and reducing the transmission gap to zero. Meanwhile, 16 micro-miniature air bearings are arranged at the bottom of the motion stage, forming an air film through 0.1 MPa clean compressed air, which increases the contact stiffness to 200 N/μm while keeping the friction coefficient below 0.0001. More importantly, the motion stage is equipped with a self-developed "dual-frequency interferometer + AI error compensation system": the laser interferometer collects position data in real time at a frequency of 10 kHz, and the AI algorithm corrects the errors caused by temperature, vibration, and magnetic field interference within milliseconds. Test data shows that the repeat positioning accuracy of this motion stage reaches ±0.3 nm, with a travel range covering 50 mm × 50 mm × 10 mm, fully meeting the requirements of the mask alignment system for EUV lithography machines. 

Air-bearing Rotating Shaft: Say Goodbye to "Trembling" in "Rotation"

In processes such as semiconductor packaging and wafer bonding, rotational motion is an inevitable step. Traditional mechanical bearing rotating tables, even after precise grinding and matching, still have radial runout at the micrometer level; while magnetic levitation rotating shafts, although highly accurate, face issues of high cost and weak anti-interference ability. Prim's air-bearing rotating shaft, with a combination of "gas lubrication + magnetic levitation assistance", delivers a powerful "one-two punch". 

In its structural design, the core of the rotating shaft is a ceramic shaft (zirconia content > 95%) whose surface has been polished by an ion beam. At the journal, it forms a 0.01mm air film gap with the annular air cavity of the air bearing. The air source undergoes three-stage filtration (filtering accuracy 0.1μm) and pressure stabilization treatment to ensure that the air pressure fluctuation is less than ±0.5%. Meanwhile, a miniature electromagnetic coil is embedded inside the shaft system. When abnormal vibration is detected, the electromagnetic force will intervene within 0.1ms to suppress high-frequency jitter. Measured data shows that the radial runout of this rotating shaft is < 0.5μm at 300rpm, and the angular resolution reaches 0.001°. After continuous rotation for 1000 hours, the air film thickness attenuation is less than 5% of the initial value - this performance even surpasses some imported high-end products. 

Ceramic Plate Fork: Hidden "Black Technology" at Your Fingertips

In scenarios such as wafer handling and precise alignment, the end effector is the "last meter" that directly contacts the workpiece. Prim's ceramic plate fork is precisely such a key component that is "small in size but big in function". Its main body is integrally formed from aluminum nitride (AlN) ceramic, a material that not only boasts a high thermal conductivity of 170 W/(m·K) (five times that of aluminum alloy) but can also withstand temperatures up to 800°C, making it perfectly suitable for high-temperature processes like laser annealing. 

The structure design of the ceramic wafer fork is full of ingenuity: the fork teeth adopt the "cantilever beam + variable cross-section" optimization, and through finite element analysis, the natural frequency is raised to over 500Hz, completely avoiding the wafer breakage caused by resonance during the transportation process; the fork tip is processed by laser micro-engraving to form micro-scale anti-slip patterns, combined with surface plasma treatment, the friction coefficient is increased by 40%, ensuring the stable grasping of the wafer during high-speed movement. What is more worth mentioning is that the ceramic wafer fork integrates a temperature sensor and a heating electrode, which can control the temperature in real time during transportation (accuracy ±1℃), which is crucial for the wafer bonding process that needs to be carried out at a specific temperature. 

Technical Closed Loop: Prim's "Precision Manufacturing Philosophy"

From the fixture plate to the ceramic fork, Prim's technological layout is not a mere accumulation of isolated technologies, but a systematic project centered on "precise control". The fixture plate provides a stable reference, the precision motion stage achieves coarse and precise positioning, the air-float rotating shaft completes micro-angle adjustments, and the ceramic fork ultimately accomplishes sub-micron-level grasping. The four links are interconnected through a unified control bus (a high-speed communication protocol based on EtherCAT), forming a closed loop of "perception - decision - execution". 

Behind this technological closed loop lies Prim's profound understanding of the demands of semiconductor manufacturing. As Dr. Li, the company's CTO, put it, "The advancement of semiconductor manufacturing is essentially a precision control accuracy competition. Each of our technologies is answering the question - how to make machines understand the nanoscale world better than humans." Currently, this suite of Prim's technologies has been applied to the advanced packaging equipment of a leading domestic semiconductor equipment manufacturer, helping it achieve a leap in the bonding yield of 12-inch wafers from 92% to 98%. 

Conclusion: The Chinese Power in Precision Manufacturing

In the field of semiconductor equipment, what often causes a "choke point" is not a single technology, but the full-chain capability from materials, structure to control. The practice of Huzhou Primex has proved that when Chinese enterprises start to delve into the "micro-nanometer" details of precision manufacturing and reconstruct the technical chain with a systems thinking approach, they can occupy an irreplaceable position in the global industrial chain. From fixture plates to ceramic piece forks, these seemingly ordinary industrial components are carrying the hope of China's semiconductor industry to break through and rise - because true precision does not lie in slogans, but in the tolerance of each part, in the control of each movement, and in the obsession of every engineer with "perfection".