The wafer is sliced from an ingot that is grown in a vacuum furnace, ground to a precise diameter and flatted. After slicing, the wafer may be heated and (or) coated to suit final use. Then, miniature, multi-layered devices are constructed on its face, and the wafer is diced into tiny pieces, each containing identical circuitry. Each piece becomes the heart of a semiconductor or the chip.
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Shown here in actual size is a slice of hyper-pure crystalline silicon, or what we call a silicon wafer |
An enlarged view of a single chip. The one shown here is of the simpler variety, used in toys, calculators, and such |
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