computer wafer
Computer wafers actually refer to the silicon wafers used to make computer chips. In the semiconductor industry, silicon wafers are the basis for the manufacture of key components such as microprocessors and memory chips in all modern electronic devices.
computer wafer
The following is a detailed description of computer wafers:
Material Basis: Computer wafers are mainly made of high-purity silicon, which is a semiconductor material whose conductivity can be adjusted by doping to enable the construction of circuits.
Manufacturing Process:
High purity silicon is refined from silica sand.
Pure silicon is made into monocrystalline silicon rods, either by straight drawing or zone fusion.
The silicon rods are cut into thin wafers, called wafers, typically 8 inches (200mm) or 12 inches (300mm) in diameter.
The wafers are ground and polished to ensure an extremely flat and smooth surface.
Next comes cleaning and pre-treatment in preparation for subsequent lithography and doping.
Circuit fabrication:
Circuits are precisely patterned on the wafer by photolithography.
Chemical etching is used to remove unwanted parts, leaving the metal and insulating layers to form the circuit.
The doping process introduces impurities to form n-type or p-type semiconductor regions.
These steps are repeated multiple times to build multilayer circuit structures.
Finally, the wafers are cut into individual chips, packaged and tested to become usable computer components.
Applications: Chips on computer wafers are ultimately used in CPUs (central processing units), GPUs (graphics processing units), memory modules, controllers, etc., and are a core component of computer hardware.
As technology evolves, wafer sizes and manufacturing processes continue to advance to improve productivity and chip performance while reducing costs. The shift from 6-inch to 12-inch wafers has significantly increased the chip output of a single wafer.
The manufacture of computer wafers is a highly complex and sophisticated process that requires strict environmental controls and advanced technology, and is the cornerstone of the modern information technology industry.
