Black alumina ceramic is a highly important and widely used advanced engineering ceramic. It is sintered from a high-purity alumina (Al₂O₃) matrix through special processes, such as adding transition metal oxide colorants like MnO₂, CoO, and Cr₂O₃. While maintaining or even optimizing the excellent properties of white alumina ceramic, it possesses a unique black appearance, which enhances its aesthetics, light-shielding ability, and special electrical/optical properties. Therefore, its application scenarios are more "customized".
Its main application fields are as follows, covering everything from daily consumer electronics to high-end industrial and scientific research fields:
(1) Semiconductor Manufacturing and Electronics Industry
This is one of the most high-end and critical application fields for black alumina ceramics.
Key Components for Chip Manufacturing: Used in the fabrication of chambers and parts inside etching machines (Etcher) and Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) equipment. Black ceramics exhibit excellent plasma corrosion resistance, enabling them to withstand the bombardment of corrosive gases and ensuring a long service life. Additionally, their black surface can reduce light reflection, avoiding interference during the manufacturing process.
Wafer Processing and Handling: Used as the base material for electrostatic chucks (ESC - Electrostatic Chuck). It requires excellent insulation, flatness, thermal stability, and plasma erosion resistance, and black alumina fully meets these requirements. It is used to firmly hold silicon wafers and control their temperature during the manufacturing process.
Insulation and Heat Dissipation Components: Used as insulation rings, substrates, heat sinks, etc., in high-power electronic devices. Their black appearance also facilitates laser marking identification in some cases.
(2) Precision machinery and wear-resistant parts
High-Performance Seals: Used as mechanical seal rings in equipment such as pumps, valves, and agitators. Black alumina ceramics possess extremely high hardness, wear resistance, and chemical corrosion resistance, making them suitable for harsh working conditions.
Wear-Resistant Parts: Used as thread guides in textile machinery, wear-resistant blades in cutting tools, bearings, and more.
Measurement and Testing: Used as probe heads for Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMM) and worktables for precision instruments, due to their high rigidity, stability, and wear resistance.
(3) Consumer Electronics and Exterior Components
Smartphones: Used in the manufacture of camera rings and decorative parts for mobile phones. It not only provides a high-end, deep matte black appearance but also has extremely high hardness, which can effectively protect the camera lens from scratches.
Optical Devices and Lens Bases: Used in the manufacturing of lens barrels, inner walls, aperture blades, and other components for optical equipment such as cameras, microscopes, and lasers. Their extremely low reflectivity (due to the black color) can effectively absorb stray light, eliminate internal light reflection and glare, and significantly improve imaging contrast and quality—an advantage that white alumina cannot match.
Black has a stronger sense of technology than white, which meets the industrial design needs of many brands.
(4) Military and Aerospace Industry
Black ceramics have low reflectivity and can be used in stealth/anti-jamming designs for certain military components.
On spacecraft, it can be used as wear-resistant, insulating, and high-temperature-resistant components.
(5) Other Special Applications
As ceramic knives and cutting tools, the black color is both practical and helps easily distinguish between different materials.
As an insulating component, its black appearance is easier to distinguish in certain testing environments