KSM Group boasts the world's No. 1 metal bellows technology

KSM Group participated in Semicon Korea 2019 to exhibit innovative semiconductor equipment parts and components. Among the affiliates, KSM exhibited Metal Bellows, KSM Component exhibited heater parts, and Korea Seal Master exhibited Mechanical Seal.

The metal bellows, which is the main source of sales of KSM Group, refers to a structure formed by forming and welding a thin sheet of 0.05mm thickness into a flexible corrugated tube. This structure is used to keep both the inside and outside of the semiconductor equipment in a vacuum sealed state. Since the semiconductor wafer is moved and processed in the equipment, metal bellows are required to distinguish between the atmospheric state and the vacuum state.

The metal bellows should be able to move, compress, and stretch, and be used for more than one million cycles in high temperature, high pressure, and corrosive environments. KSM metal bellows is a part that global semiconductor equipment companies compete to get their hands on. Korean equipment parts companies rarely have a U.S. subsidiary and factories; KSM does.

"KSM has the world's largest market share in the metal bellows market," said Jeong-il Kim, Executive Director of KSM. "With our proprietary automated welding robot technology, we can produce more high-quality and high-durability products than any other metal bellows company in the world,” he emphasized.

The heater is the new growth engine of the KSM group. This product is used as a key component of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and etching process equipment among semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The heater must be able to heat uniformly over the entire wafer area while maintaining direct contact with the silicon wafer and maintaining a minimum temperature deviation. KSM Component brazes or welds the metal with an automated system. In the case of welding, thermal deformation is small because it utilizes E beams. High productivity is the greatest competitive advantage. The development period is shortened to two weeks so that it can respond quickly to customer requests.

Korean Seal Master presented Kalrez O-ring, a sealing product. Kalrez is made of high fluorine content and thus has higher chemical and thermal resistance than existing materials. It is applied to semiconductor and display vacuum equipment.