Tuesday 10 December 2013

Silicon Wafer Foundry Service Providers

By Paul Drake


The semiconductor industry (and the sectors it is serving) has been benefiting a lot from silicon wafer foundry service providers. In particular, the coming of advanced technologies like the fabless business model, provide the advantage of affordability - a crucial factor in maintaining the operational costs at a low level. With the help of foundry service providers' process capabilities, the production of semiconductor components (e.g. MEMS) have been efficient and cost-effective.

A number of process capabilities have been serving clients in the semiconductor industry, including the following:

Lithography - putting specific patterns on silicon substrates; the patterns are written on the surface of the wafers through the use of a light sensitive polymer called photoresist. Also known as photolithography, this process plays a significant role in the manufacturing semiconductor components that integrate millions of transistors of a circuit.

Etching - the process of making prints on a wafer's surface. Wafer foundry companies use several wet etching capabilities that etch items that are smaller in diameters - ranging from 300mm and down - for a broad range of dielectrics and metal films. Aside from that, these foundry companies also process non-standard sized substrates.

Wafer reclaim and recovery - this service is a practical way of extending the life of wafers; wafer foundry service providers have the capacity to mechanically re-polish wafers to remove film, surface scratches, and residual patterns. While there is a certain limit on the number of times a wafer may be reclaimed, still this procedure is a cost effective solution that benefits customers.

Thin films (dielectrics) - with this process capability, foundry companies use equipment like custom furnaces to facilitate processes like LPCVD and thermal oxide.

KISS Polishing - this process is utilized by foundry companies for the removal of minor surface scratches or defects on a substrate; this process involves visual inspection to find wafers with chips and cracks.

There are still a lot of process capabilities inside a silicon wafer foundry service facility - thanks to the people behind these innovations. True indeed that they are a big help to the semiconductor industry and the sectors it serves.




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