Silicon wafer is the foundation of integrated circuit industry and the core material of wafer manufacturing. The independent supply capacity of 8-inch and 12-inch silicon wafers in mainland China is weak and highly dependent on imports, which is a weak link in the integrated circuit industry chain. In recent years, under the policy support and the industry's active efforts, there have been some high-quality enterprises, silicon wafer production capacity will be gradually landed in the next few years, to complete the development of silicon wafer industry dream road.

Silicon wafer is the core basic material of semiconductor

Silicon wafer is the basic material of chip manufacturing. Flake objects made of silicon are generally made of highly pure crystalline silicon. Compared with other materials, crystalline silicon has a very stable molecular structure, very few free electrons are produced, and very low electrical conductivity. Semiconductor device is to change the molecular structure of silicon by means of lithography, etching, ion implantation and so on to improve its conductivity, and finally obtain a product with low conductivity. Silicon wafers are mainly used in semiconductor and photovoltaic fields, and their differences are mainly manifested in type, purity and surface properties:

Semiconductor silicon wafers are monocrystalline silicon, solar energy used in silicon wafers are single crystal and polycrystal;

Semiconductor silicon wafer purity requirements are high, 99.9999999% (9N) above, compared with photovoltaic requirements are lower, 99.99%-99.9999% (4N-6N) between;

The surface smoothness, smoothness and cleanliness of semiconductor silicon wafer are higher than that of photovoltaic wafer, which requires subsequent grinding and chamfering, polishing, cleaning and other links.

The high specification requirement of semiconductor silicon wafer makes its manufacturing process complicated. Four core steps include polysilicon purification and polysilicon ingot casting, monocrystalline silicon growth and silicon wafer cutting and forming. As the raw material of wafer manufacturing, the quality of silicon wafer directly determines the stability of wafer manufacturing.

From: Semiconductor Industry Watch