Quartz for the Electronics Industry

The most fundamental role of quartz in the electronics industry is that it is the starting raw material of the silicon chain. Quartz is processed in electric arc furnaces together with carbon based reductants to produce metallurgical grade silicon; this silicon then passes through successive refining stages to reach the high-purity material used in semiconductor and photovoltaic applications. Because the upper steps of the chain require very high purity, the SiO₂ content, the distribution of impurities and the consistency of grain size are decisive in raw material selection.

The second important field of use for quartz is insulating and structural components. In electrotechnical porcelain and technical ceramics, quartz is the component that gives the body dimensional stability and balances shrinkage during firing. In epoxy based printed circuit board laminates and in the molding compounds used to encapsulate electronic components, finely ground silica is used as a filler in order to lower the coefficient of thermal expansion, increase dimensional stability and improve heat conduction. In these applications the chemical inertness and the electrical insulating property of the material are decisive.

With a melting temperature of 1710 °C, quartz, when melted and converted into quartz glass, exhibits very low thermal expansion, high thermal shock resistance and transmission across a wide wavelength range. For this reason the furnace tubes, crucibles, UV lamps and optical components used in semiconductor manufacturing are made of quartz glass. As Seyman Maden we supply granular and micronized quartz products for the ceramic, filler, refractory and melting applications within this electronics chain; application-specific purity and fraction requests are evaluated on a project basis.