Manufacturing Technology of Aluminum Nitride Powder and Application Development

Aluminum nitride (AlN) has high thermal conductivity and high electrical insulation, so it can be used as an insulating heat dissipating material. It is a material used in a wide range of fields such as power semiconductors, LED (Light-Emitting-Diode), LD (Laser-Diode) packaging substrates and semiconductor manufacturing equipment parts. It is mainly industrialized by two AlN powder manufacturing methods, the alumina reduction nitridation method and the Al direct nitridation method. AlN powder for fillers has been developed with characteristics in particle size and particle shape and manufacturing technologies such as new reduction nitridation method, combustion synthesis method and AlN sintering method. We have succeeded in developing various size AlN fillers from 1 to 120 μm and surface-treated products for resins used in TIM (Thermal-Interface-Material) of electronic devices. This paper describes the AlN powder manufacturing technology and recent technological trends, the characteristics of AlN powder, the AlN ceramics sintering technology and its characteristics and the development of AlN heat dissipation filler. ©2021 Japan Society of Powder and Powder Metallurgy.