si wafer
Silicon wafers, an indispensable cornerstone of the semiconductor industry, play a key role in the manufacture of integrated circuits, high-efficiency solar cells and other core electronic components. The following is a detailed description of the wafer production process and a comprehensive overview of its importance: The Journey to Raw Material Refinement: The manufacture of silicon wafers begins with the in-depth chemical purification of sand and gravel found in nature, with the goal of increasing purity to a near-perfect 99.9999999999999%, a stringent requirement that ensures high performance and stability for semiconductor applications.
si wafer
The perfect birth of monocrystalline silicon: purified silicon is melted and slowly grown into perfectly structured monocrystalline silicon rods using advanced technologies such as straight drawing (CZ) or floating zone (FZ) in a precisely controlled temperature gradient and pure environment. The fine control of temperature and environment in this process is crucial, and is directly related to the quality and purity of silicon crystals. Fine sculpting of wafers: The art of cutting: single crystal silicon rods are precisely cut into ultra-thin wafers, a process that relies on high-precision tools such as diamond wire saws to ensure precision and efficiency. Polishing to Mirror: The wafers are then ground and polished in multiple steps until the surface is mirror-smooth, a step that is especially critical as any small imperfections may affect the final performance of the chip. Pure Baptism: Before further processing, wafers undergo a rigorous cleaning process to completely remove surface and internal impurities and residues, and through a variety of testing methods to ensure flawless quality. From the early 4-inch, 6-inch, to today’s mainstream 8-inch, 12-inch, and even larger sizes that may be explored in the future, not only improves the production efficiency, but also puts forward a higher challenge to the manufacturing process. This trend is driving technological innovation and industrial upgrading in the semiconductor industry. As the core component of semiconductor materials, silicon wafers account for as much as 33% of its value, which is of inestimable strategic significance for maintaining the security and independent control of the national semiconductor industry chain. The manufacturing of silicon wafers is not only a technology-intensive and complex project, but also a capital-intensive and highly-invested field, which continues to drive the semiconductor industry to develop in the direction of higher purity, larger size, and higher quality, and lays a solid foundation for the global technological progress and industrial upgrading.
