2, What is the wafer used for? The chip is machined and cut on it. The size of the wafer means how many chips, also known as ics, can be cut. The larger the size, the more chips you cut, and the more chips you cut, the lower the cost.
3, does it mean that the bigger the wafer, the better? It's not. The larger the wafer, the more difficult it is to manufacture, the more difficult it is to process, and the higher the cost. For processes below 14nm, the best size at present is 12 inches, with the lowest cost. Therefore, 12-inch wafers are of great significance to high-end chips, and enterprises that master 12-inch wafer manufacturing and processing technology have naturally become the biggest beneficiaries of high-end chips.
How many chips can you cut out of a 4, 12-inch wafer? In theory, around 700, minus the edge loss (round edge chips can not be used), about a 12-inch wafer can cut 500 chips. High-end chips are expensive and require large sizes to reduce costs, which is the core logic inside. The 12-inch is currently the most cost-effective.
After popularizing the knowledge of 12-inch wafers, let's talk about companies involved in the manufacturing and processing of 12-inch wafers.
On silicon wafers, look at China Global shares and Shanghai silicon industry. Shanghai silicon industry 12-inch wafers already have capacity, but the current utilization rate is not high, and it is still impacting capacity. Two holding subsidiaries, one Xinao Technology, should now have a better break-even balance, and one is Shanghai Xinsheng, which acquired Shanghai Xinyang, with a production capacity of 150,000 pieces\/month in 2019.
Zhonghuan's 12-inch wafers have made major breakthroughs in the performance and quality of key technology products, and have been mass-produced and supplied to major domestic digital logic chip and memory chip manufacturers. Annual report of brokerage institutions analysis.
12 inch wafer foundry enterprises, the current planning and production capacity of the company are Shilanwei, China Resources micro and Yuexin semiconductor.
The material of the chip is silicon, silicon is round, so it is also called wafer, the size of the wafer size, is the diameter of the circle.