Download PDFOpen PDF in browserWear Behavior of Si-doped Diamond-like Carbon Coating under Electrical Contact5 pages•Published: August 6, 2026AbstractScaling of semiconductor devices to nanometer dimensions has significantly increased their susceptibility to electrostatic discharge (ESD), making robust protection during fabrication and packaging essential for maintaining yield and reliability. However, conventional wafer carrier coatings such as micro spray coatings and hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) films struggle to combine low surface resistance with sufficient mechanical durability. Spray coatings can provide surface resistance below 10⁹ Ω but exhibit surface hardness on the order of 1 GPa, which is inadequate under Hertzian contact pressures approaching several hundred MPa.In contrast, a-C:H coatings can improve ESD performance by increasing the sp³ fraction, but the sp³ content is fundamentally limited in conventional chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and excessive hydrogen incorporation leads to polymer-like structures with degraded mechanical properties. In this work, we propose a new diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating process for wafer carriers that simultaneously achieves ESD protection and high wear resistance. Using acetylene (C₂H₂) as the base precursor, we introduce tetramethylsilane (TMS, Si(CH₃)₄) during CVD to form Si–C and Si–H bonds within the DLC matrix. This approach is designed to tune the optical band gap and sp³ fraction while maintaining a dense network that delivers surface hardness above 20 GPa and surface resistance suitable for static charge dissipation. The influence of hydrogen and silicon incorporation on structure, mechanical properties, electrical behavior, and wear performance is systematically investigated to establish a framework for assessing the long-term reliability of ESD-protective DLC coatings in advanced semiconductor manufacturing environments. Keyphrases: electrostatic dissipative coating, si dlc, sic, wear resistance In: Numpon Mahayotsanun (editor). Proceedings of The 11th International Conference on Tribology in Manufacturing Processes & Advanced Surface Engineering, vol 4, pages 17-21.
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