#silicon substrate

Silicon wafer, also known as silicon substrate or dice, is obtained from the silicon ingot. It acts as a substrate for microelectronic devices and is used in integrated circuits (ICs) due to its conductive properties and affordability. Silicon is the second most abundant material in the earth’s crust, and is found in beach sand, quartz, flint, and agate, among others. For use in electronic devices, silicon substrates must be covered with metal. Metallic thin films are deposited on silicon wafers to form conductive pathways. Common metals used for this purpose include copper, nickel, chromium, germanium, and gold. Metal alloys like platinum and tantalum may also be used. Vacuum deposition methods such as sputtering, filament evaporation, and electron beam evaporation are used for this purpose.

Silicon wafers or silicon substrates can be doped (impure) or undoped (pure). Doped silicon wafer is also known as extrinsic or degenerate wafer, while a doped wafer is also known as intrinsic wafer. Doping, or adding impurities to the wafer, helps in changing the electrical conductivity of silicon. If the doping amount is high, the silicon wafer is known as degenerate, but if the doping amount is low or moderate, it is known as extrinsic type.

P-type and N-type silicon wafers 

There are two types of doped silicon substrates: P-type and N-type. In P or Positive substrate, a positively charged material like boron is doped while in N-type substrate, a negatively charged material like phosphorus or arsenic is added. Silicon substrate is made from a super-flat semiconductor material. It can be made using many methods like Czochralski (CZ) pulling method, and Float Zone (FZ) growth method.

Polished silicon substrate is used in a variety of applications including microfabrication, imaging, and experiments. Two grades of silicon substrates are usually offered, standard silicon wafers for use in standard applications and medium-resolution imaging, and ultra-flat silicon wafers requiring high-resolution imaging. Silicon wafer substrates can be used for sample substrates, biological substrates, and thin film research.

Silicon wafers are widely used in a variety of applications, such as:

Semiconductor manufacturing

Home appliances

Computers and smartphones

Thin film deposition

Artificial intelligence (AI)

MEMS fabrication

microchips

Transistors, rectifiers, and diodes

Opto-electronic components

High-power applications (detectors and sensors)

Get different types of silicon wafers with custom specifications 

WaferPro is the world’s leading supplier of different types of silicon wafers with custom specifications. The company has a selection of Prime Semi Standard CZ wafers in stock at all times, which can be shipped in a day all over the world. WaferPro offers below types of silicon wafers to its worldwide clients:

Prime Silicon Wafer: Also referred to as Device Grade or Particle Grade wafer, it has tighter specs for thickness, bow, warp, and cleanliness. This type of silicon wafer is used in semiconductor devices, particle monitors, and lithography.

Test Silicon Wafer: Also referred to as Monitor or Dummy wafer, it has a wider spec than prime wafers. It is used in equipment setup & testing, and production process evaluation.

Reclaimed Silicon Wafer: The wafer is made to go through either a wet thermal oxide or dry thermal oxide process to grow a thermal oxide or silicon oxide (SiO2) layer on the wafer, which is commonly used as a dielectric layer and in MEMs devices.

Wafer substrate is a thin slice of semiconductor material which is used in electronics fabrication. Highly pure crystalline silicone (c-Si) is used in the manufacturing of silicon wafers that act as a substrate for microelectronic devices. Silicon substrates are used in the semiconductor industry to build electronic circuits as these have high conductivity and are very affordable too. Silicon wafers come in a variety of shapes and sizes, depending upon their use. The surface is smoothened to improve its purity. The two most common methods for silicon substrate are known as Czochralski pulling method, and Vertical Bridgeman method.

Once silicon is extracted from the sand, it is heated till it melts into a high-purity liquid of about 99.9999999% purity or higher. This means, only one out of a billion silicon atoms can be non-silicon. The molten silicon is then allowed to solidify into a silicon rod or ingot using an appropriate fabrication method. A small piece of solid silicon in a pool of molten silicon is placed and pulled in rotation as the liquid transforms into a cylindrical ingot, resulting in a disc-shaped wafer.

WaferPro is the world’s leading supplier of the best quality and affordable wafer substrates and silicon substrates for use in the semiconductor and electronics industry. WaferPro provides below types of silicon wafers:

Prime Silicon Wafers: Also known as Device Grade or Particle Grade wafers, Prime wafers have tighter specs for thickness, bow, warp, TTV, surface roughness and cleanliness. Prime wafers are widely used in photolithography, particle monitors, and semiconductor devices.

Test Silicon Wafers: While these wafers may be slightly thinner than virgin Test wafers, they can usually be used as a lower-cost alternative in many processes. These are chemically and/or mechanically treated to reuse as a bare silicon wafer.

Silicon Wafer with Thermal Oxide: These are silicon wafers which have been through either a Wet Thermal Oxide, or a Dry Thermal Oxide process, to grow a thermal oxide or silicon dioxide layer on the surface of the wafer.

Silicon Wafer with LPCVD/PECVD Nitride: In LPCVD Nitride wafers, low-pressure chemical vapor deposition nitride is applied to both sides of the wafer at the same time while in PECVD Nitride wafers, plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition nitride is applied to only one side of the wafer. LPCVD Nitride is used for the applications where temperature is not critical while PECVD Nitride wafers are more suitable when a lower-temperature process is needed.

Custom silicon wafer substrates for your applications 

Silicon wafers are available at WaferPro in different sizes, anywhere from 25.4 mm, or one inch to 300 mm, which is 11.8 inches. Wafers using a different material than silicon will most likely have a different thickness than the one using silicon for the same diameter. The thickness of the wafer is determined by the automated strength of the material used, so that it does not crack during use. Orientation is a significant part as many of the single crystal’s mechanical and electronic properties are anisotropic, making them directionally dependent.