In electronics, a wafer (also called a slice or substrate) is a thin slice of semiconductor, such as a crystalline silicon (c-Si, silicium), used for the fabrication of integrated circuits and, in photovoltaics, to manufacture See more

Standard wafer sizes
Silicon substrate
Silicon wafers are available in a variety of diameters from 25.4 mm (1 inch) to 300 mm (11.8 inches). See more

In order to minimize the cost per die, manufacturers wish to maximize the number of dies that can be made from a single wafer; dies always have a square or rectangular shape … See more

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 … See more

Formation
Wafers are formed of highly pure, nearly defect-free single crystalline material, with a purity of 99.9999999% (9N) or higher. One process for … See more

Challenges
There is considerable resistance to the 450 mm transition despite the possible productivity improvement, because of concern about … See more

While silicon is the prevalent material for wafers used in the electronics industry, other compound III-V or II-VI materials have also been employed. Gallium arsenide (GaAs), a III-V semiconductor produced via the Czochralski method, gallium nitride (GaN) … See more