Wafer (electronics)

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.

For the variety of food, see Wafer.
  • Top left: polished 12" and 6" silicon wafers. Their crystallographic orientation is marked by notches and flat cuts. Top right: VLSI microcircuits fabricated on a 12-inch (300 mm) silicon wafer, before dicing and packaging.
  • Bottom left: A 3D rendering of solar wafers on a conveyor. Bottom right: completed solar wafers

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.

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