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This is a list of silicon producers. The industry involves several very different stages of production. Production starts at silicon metal, which is the material used to gain high purity silicon. High purity silicon in different grades of purity is used for growing silicon ingots, which are sliced to wafers in a process called wafering.
The primary application of monocrystalline silicon is in the production of discrete components and integrated circuits.Ingots made by the Czochralski method are sliced into wafers about 0.75 mm thick and polished to obtain a regular, flat substrate, onto which microelectronic devices are built through various microfabrication processes, such as doping or ion implantation, etching, deposition ...
This is a list of countries by silicon production in 2021, based on USGS figures. [1] Rank Country/region Silicon production (thousands of tons per year) ...
The crystal ingots from which wafers are sliced can be up to 2 metres in length, weighing several hundred kilograms. Larger wafers allow improvements in manufacturing efficiency, as more chips can be fabricated on each wafer, with lower relative loss, so there has been a steady drive to increase silicon wafer sizes.
In the Czochralski process a seed crystal is required to create a larger crystal, or ingot. This seed crystal is dipped into the pure molten silicon and slowly extracted. The molten silicon grows on the seed crystal in a crystalline fashion. As the seed is extracted the silicon solidifies and eventually a large, cylindrical boule is produced. [3]
A typical wafer is made out of extremely pure silicon that is grown into mono-crystalline cylindrical ingots up to 300 mm (slightly less than 12 inches) in diameter using the Czochralski process. These ingots are then sliced into wafers about 0.75 mm thick and polished to obtain a very regular and flat surface.
In the semiconductor industry, the term wafer appeared in the 1950s to describe a thin round slice of semiconductor material, typically germanium or silicon. The round shape characteristic of these wafers comes from single-crystal ingots usually produced using the Czochralski method. Silicon wafers were first introduced in the 1940s. [2] [3]
The use of polycrystalline silicon in the production of solar cells requires less material and therefore provides higher profits and increased manufacturing throughput. Polycrystalline silicon does not need to be deposited on a silicon wafer to form a solar cell, rather it can be deposited on other, cheaper materials, thus reducing the cost.