Silicon Wafer

- Wafers

In electronics, wafers (also known as slices or substrates) are thin slices of semiconductors, such as crystalline silicon (c-Si), used to make integrated circuits and, in photovoltaics, to make solar cells. 

Wafers serve as substrates for microelectronic devices built into and on the wafers. It undergoes many microfabrication processes such as doping, ion implantation, etching, thin film deposition of various materials, and photolithographic patterning. 

Finally, individual microcircuits are separated and packaged into integrated circuits by wafer dicing.

- Silicon Wafer

Silicon wafer is a material used for producing semiconductors, which can be found in all types of electronic devices that improve the lives of people. In electronics, a wafer (also called a slice or substrate) is a thin slice of semiconductor, such as a crystalline silicon (c-Si), used for the fabrication of integrated circuits and, in photovoltaics, to manufacture solar cells. 

The wafer serves as the substrate for microelectronic devices built in and upon the wafer. It undergoes many microfabrication processes, such as doping, ion implantation, etching, thin-film deposition of various materials, and photolithographic patterning. Finally, the individual microcircuits are separated by wafer dicing and packaged as an integrated circuit. 

There are various methods used in silicon fabrication counting the horizontal Bridgeman method, horizontal gradient freeze method, vertical gradient freeze, vertical Bridgeman method and the Czochralski pulling method.  

- Silicon Dopants

All through the growth process dopants can be included to modify the purity of the silicon wafer depending on its manufacturing purpose. The impurities can alter silicon electronic properties which are essential depending on the purpose of its production.  

Some of the silicon dopants that can be added throughout the growth process include aluminum, boron, nitrogen, indium and gallium. A semiconductor can be regarded as either degenerate or extrinsic depending on the level the silicon wafer was, when the dopants were added.
During the fabrication process, degenerate semiconductors are mainly used as conductors due to the extreme levels of doping while extrinsic are lightly to fairly doped.  

- Silicon Wafers In Electronic Devices

Semiconductors such as the silicon wafer can be used in the production of both chips and microchips in electronic gadgets. 

Due to the uniqueness of the electrical currents via silicon wafers, these semiconductors are used in creating ICs (integrated circuits). The ICs act as commands for specific actions in various electronic devices. 

The Silicon wafer is the main element in integrated circuits. Simply put, integrated circuits are a composite of a variety of electronic elements that are brought together to perform a particular function.  

Silicon is the key platform for semiconductor gadgets. A wafer is just but a thin slice of the semiconductor material that acts as a substratum for microelectronic devices fitted in and above the wafer.  

Even if it can be simple to relate silicon wafers with very particular technological devices that individuals only dream of, silicon wafers are way much closer than anyone may think!   

Silicon wafers are used in computers, smartphones, and mobile devices and even in the tire pressure sensor system.  

Manufacturing of the silicon wafer is an incredibly vital part of the establishment and expansion of a broad range of technological advancements.

- The Most Efficient Semiconductor Materials

Even though other conductors are employed in more particular applications, silicon is the best and the most used semiconductor due to its extreme mobility both at high temperatures and at room temperature. 

What makes Silicon an outstanding option in electronic devices is because its electrical currents can pass via the silicon conductors much quicker compared to other conductors.  

In addition to gallium arsenide, the compound silicon dioxide has properties superior to silicon, making it useful as an insulator, passivation layer, and buildup layer in metal oxide silicon (MOS) devices, a type of insulated gate field effect transistor. 

Silicon dioxide has a higher dielectric strength and wider bandgap than silicon, making it an effective insulator, and the compound is easy to deposit on other materials.