Silicon Wafer Diameters from 1 inch to 12 inch in stock!

Silicon Wafer Diameter for Protyping

Prototyping Selection Tips

• Standardization: 100 mm (4 inch) is the most common prototyping size in the United States due to its widespread compatibility with university and legacy tool sets.

• Scaling: Moving to 200 mm or 300 mm is recommended when your research requires mirroring modern production lines or preparing for a foundry transfer.

• Metric Accuracy: Using exact metric designations (e.g., 50 mm vs 2 inch) ensures better compatibility with cassettes and chucks built to metric standards.

Selecting the Right Diameter for Your Stage

1. Concept & Discovery: 2" and 3" Wafers

Small wafers are ideal for low-cost proof-of-concept work.

• Cost Efficiency: Smaller wafers minimize material waste during experimental phases where recipes change frequently.

• Specialized Use: Often used for material characterization, thin-film studies, and early MEMS development.

• Lab Compatibility: Many academic laboratories maintain equipment specifically designed for these sizes.

2. Structured R&D: 4" (100 mm) Wafers

The 100 mm wafer is the "research workhorse" in the United States.

• U.S. Standard: Most university cleanrooms are built around 100 mm cassettes, masks, and handlers.

• Balanced Yield: Provides enough surface area for meaningful Design of Experiments (DOE) while remaining affordable.

3. Pilot & Pre-Production: 6" (150 mm) and 8" (200 mm) Wafers

As designs mature, teams scale to these sizes to match commercial toolsets.

• Production Realism: Transitioning to 200 mm allows researchers to study yield scaling and edge effects that reflect industrial reality.

• Foundry Transfer: Use these diameters when aligning a prototype for eventual transfer to a U.S. foundry.

4. Foundry-Ready: 12" (300 mm) Wafers

300 mm wafers are the state-of-the-art manufacturing standard for logic and memory.

• High-Volume Realism: Prototype on 300 mm only if you have access to a fully automated 300 mm fab environment and need your prototype to mirror modern high-throughput conditions.

Prototyping Strategy: Matching Grade to Step

• Mechanical / Dummy Grade: Use for initial handling practice and equipment tuning to save budget.

• Test Grade: Perfect for most academic experiments and thin-film monitoring.

• Prime Grade: Reserved for final device validation and critical fabrication runs.

What Diameters are Silicon Wafers?

Silicon wafers are typically available in a range of sizes, with the most common sizes being

• 2 inch
• 3 inch
• 4 inch
• 6 inch
• 8 inch
• 12 inch

These sizes refer to the diameter of the wafer, which is measured in inches. The thickness of a silicon wafer is typically a few hundred micrometers, or a few thousandths of an inch.

In addition to these standard sizes, silicon wafers are also available in other, non-standard sizes. For example, wafers with diameters of 1 inch, 5 inch, 8 inch or 12 inch may be used for certain specialized applications. Silicon wafers are also available in a variety of shapes, including square and rectangular, although circular wafers are the most common.

The size of a silicon wafer is typically determined by the intended use of the wafer and the production process involved. For example, smaller wafers may be used for the production of smaller microelectronic devices, while larger wafers may be used for the production of larger devices or for more efficient manufacturing processes. The size of a wafer can also affect the cost of the wafer and the final product.

Semiconductor Wafer Sizes

To increase yields to decrease prices, semiconductor manufacturers helped the industry evolve wafer diameters that are now 450mm!

For over 50 years, the semiconductor industry has striven, with great initial success, at greatly reducing the manufacturing cost to make transistors. One of the easiest ways of reducing transistor costs was to increase transistor yields from the silicon wafers that they were etched on. The future of silicon wafers diameters may be determined by the easy of handling and shipping. The larger the wafer, the heavier they weigh and greater storage areas, equipment are needed to support the wafers.

Below is the evolution of silicon wafer diameters. Please let us know the specs and quantity that we can quote for you.

It is interesting to note that say 200mm silicon wafer diameters are not exactly 200mm, but 7.9 inches! Why? The semiconductor industry was born in the United States which did not use the metric system. But as the rest of the world, specifically Japan started to manufacture semiconductors, the 200mm designation was used for 8 inch (7.9 inch) substrates. And now all diameters in inches are referred to their metric equivalent.

How big are chip wafers?

Chip wafers, also known as integrated circuit (IC) wafers, are typically made from silicon and are used in the production of microelectronic devices such as transistors, diodes, and integrated circuits. The size of a chip wafer is typically measured in inches and can range from a few inches to a few feet in diameter.

The most common sizes for chip wafers are 2 inch, 3 inch, 4 inch, and 6 inch, which refer to the diameter of the wafer. These sizes are widely used in the electronics industry, although other sizes are also available for specialized applications. The thickness of a chip wafer is typically a few hundred micrometers, or a few thousandths of an inch.

The size of a chip wafer is typically determined by the intended use of the wafer and the production process involved. For example, smaller wafers may be used for the production of smaller microelectronic devices, while larger wafers may be used for the production of larger devices or for more efficient manufacturing processes. The size of a wafer can also affect the cost of the wafer and the final product.

Silicon Diameter Information

American silicon-to-silicon cutting machines for the production of particles and the testing of their performance. American silicon-to-silicon slices on a silicon wafer to test the performance of a new class of high-performance particle-making techniques on silicon wafers. [Sources: 6]

SUMCO Corporation (NMT) announced on Friday that it has expanded its silicon-on-silicon product line by 1%. The 200 mm silicon wafers are used to manufacture ICs and the product line has been expanded to include a new generation of high-performance particle making machines. Use the shopping cart to buy more products, such as the SumCO Silicon Cutting Machine, SUMco Silicon Wafer Diodes and other products. [Sources: 6]

On a volume basis, the total cost of the SUMCO silicon wafer diode product line is approximately $21, with an average price of $1.99 per wafer. [Sources: 6]

Consider how the different types of silicon wafers affect silicon prices. The cost of a 300 mm diameter silicon wafer is $3, but Intel states that the cost of a 300 mm wafer cannot be higher than the cost of a 200 mm diameter wafer. If you produced one ton of silicon in 2009, and a lot of it in the form of SUMCO silicon diodes, then the cost of the wafer does not matter much. [Sources: 4, 6]

The number of integral cubes that can be cut from a wafer is proportional to its diameter. There are only a few of them for a given wafer diameter, and they are embedded with the same amount of silicon but with different shape sizes. [Sources: 5]

The manufacturing process of a silicon wafer requires many complex steps: the diameter of the silicon ingot has to be extracted very slowly, stress is minimized and the wafers are cut to a small diameter compared to their raw material (a 300 mm wafer has a diameter of about 11 mm). These elements are joined by elements such as silicon diodes (ensuring flatness is a challenge), which measure the quality of thin waves and then dice them. [Sources: 1, 4, 6]

Silicon wafer suppliers can be time consuming and difficult to find The best polished silicon discs are sourced directly from their suppliers. The cheapest silicon wafer diode production can be found on our website with the right procurement rights from our supplier. Silicon wafer diagonals, but sourcing them from your supplier can be time consuming, difficult and cheap. Find the cheap polishing agent SiliconWafer wafer you can find on our website with our source and their best prices. [Sources: 6]

The price of silicon wafers from UniversityWafer, Inc. is best found online, more competitive and of higher quality than other suppliers. Compared to other silicon wafer suppliers, UniversityWafer silicon wafers are more competitive and of higher quality, at 39 s. SiliconWafer is better priced than most of its competitors. They offer excellent customer service (link to this page for March 2018) and they ship to all countries. [Sources: 6]

The pricing of silicon wafers is based on the price of the wafer, or at least on the prices applicable at the time of purchase, not on quality. [Sources: 6]

The production of MEMS sensors will be extended to larger wafer sizes, as will be the case with the introduction of new technologies such as the Fraunhofer Frans Universities (FDM) and the Friedrich Schiller Institute for Materials Science and Technology. In this scenario, we will see a slight price decline in silicon wafers, due to the increase in their size but not their quality. There is a significant difference between the standard and standard bebe standard silicone wafer diameters available on the market due to a number of factors. [Sources: 6, 8]

Wafers grown with materials other than silicon are not usually available in 100 mm sizes and have a much lower quality than the standard silicon wafer diameters of bebe. Wafers grown from a different material such as silicon will not only have higher quality, but also higher costs per square centimetre, but also an increase in the quality of their materials. [Sources: 5, 7]

As wafer manufacturers increase the size of silicon ingots, two different types of wafers are produced: M1 and M2. Historically, the move to bigger waves has been due to foundries and factories buying cheaper silicon wobbles online. The "M1" wafer is cut to a bar diameter of 205 mm and the "M 2" wafer to an ingot diameter of 210 mm. [Sources: 2, 6]

Since multicrystalline silicon wafers are already square, it is easy to cut them to 156 - 75 mm side by side in length. LONGi points out that the method is to increase the width of the wafer from 125 mm to 156 mm and then again to 205 mm for the "M 2" and 210 mm and 215 mm respectively on the other side, but this time to a rod diameter of 205 mm. [Sources: 0, 2]

Semiconductor factories, also called fabs, are defined by the size of the wafers they produce. For example, a 300 mm wafer is known as a "12-inch" wafer, while a 12-foot silicon chip with the same diameter is only about 11.8 inches wide. Silicon wafers come in a variety of sizes and shapes, from the smallest to the largest. They are capable of up to 1,000 times more powerful than silicon chips and can be offered at prices of up to $2,500 per square inch. [Sources: 3, 5, 7]

Sources:

[0]: https://www.pv-tech.org/editors-blog/why-are-monocrystalline-wafers-increasing-in-size

[1]: http://www.us-tech.com/RelId/1194342/ISvars/default/Watch_Out_450mm_Wafers_Are_Coming.htm

[2]: https://pv-manufacturing.org/wafer-sizes/

[4]: http://www.cmmmagazine.com/mems/diane-hickey-davis-semiconductor-wafers-have-gone-on-a-diet-/

[5]: https://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/26621

[6]: http://soora.org/bmw-boost/300mm-silicon-wafer-price.html

[7]: https://www.wikidoc.org/index.php/Wafer_(electronics)