Silicon is one of the most available materials in the earth’s crust, second only to oxygen. This is one of the reasons why it’s such a widely used material in wafer manufacturing.
Sadly, semiconductor development, and more specifically, chip development, depends on other more complex and harder-to-find materials, too. In this article, we’ll cover them.
Rare earth elements (REE) is a group of metals in the periodic table that share many characteristics and can thus be found together in geologic deposits. Since many of them are usually sold as oxide compounds, they are also known as "rare earth oxides."
Numerous modern electronics depend on rare earth elements (REEs). They are essential parts of over 200 products in a variety of markets, particularly high-tech consumer goods like computer hard drives, flat-screen TVs, electric and hybrid cars, cell phones, and flat-screen monitors.
Even if REEs make up a small percentage of the product's weight, value, or volume, they’re fundamental for a device to work. For instance, REE magnets make up for only a really small portion of spindle motors and voice coils of desktops and laptops, but these wouldn’t be able to function without them.
While silicon itself works as a semiconductor, it often needs to be complemented with various amounts of rare earth elements to get it to fulfill the roles it was designed for. That’s why semiconductors like transistors, diodes, and the integrated circuits built from them, all use REE.
To enable silicon semiconductor devices to function, those dopants are deliberately (and carefully) added in precise amounts in precise locations. If you’re interested in learning more about what we do here at Wafer World, reach out!
