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SPARC wafer: What is a wafer?


Release time:

2023-05-11

  SPARC WaferFactory introduction, a wafer refers to a silicon slice used to make silicon semiconductor circuits, with silicon as its raw material. High-purity polycrystalline silicon is dissolved and mixed with silicon seeds, then slowly pulled out to form cylindrical single crystal silicon. After grinding, polishing, and slicing the silicon rod, silicon wafers are formed, which are the wafers. The domestic wafer production lines mainly focus on 8-inch and 12-inch.

  SPARC Wafer Factory stated,The main wafer processing methods are single-piece processing and batch processing, which means processing one or multiple wafers simultaneously. As the feature size of semiconductors becomes smaller and the processing and measurement equipment becomes more advanced, new data characteristics have emerged in wafer processing. At the same time, the reduction in feature size has made the number of particles in the air significantly impact processing quality and reliability. During the wafer processing, as cleanliness improves, the number of particles also shows new data characteristics.

  The wafer manufacturing process for ordinary 200mm CMOS chips:

  SPARC Wafer Factory stated,Chemical vapor deposition is a technique used to manufacture microelectronic devices by depositing certain thin films, which may be dielectric materials or semiconductors. Physical vapor deposition technology uses inert gas to impact the sputtering target, depositing the required materials on the wafer surface. The high temperature and vacuum environment in the process chamber allow these metal atoms to form grains, which are patterned and etched to obtain the desired conductive circuits.

  Optical development is the process of transferring patterns from a photomask to a film. Optical development generally includes steps such as photoresist coating, baking, exposure, and development. Dry etching is the most commonly used etching method, which uses gas as the main etching medium and plasma as the driving reaction. Etching removes some unwanted materials from the surface.

  Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) combines mechanical polishing and chemical polishing with acid and alkaline solutions, allowing the wafer surface to be relatively flat, facilitating subsequent processes. During grinding, the polishing slurry is between the wafer and the polishing pad. Factors affecting CMP include: the pressure and flatness of the polishing head, rotation speed, and the chemical composition of the polishing slurry.