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2
Silicon: The Key Material for Integrated
Circuit Fabrication Technology
“You can’t see it, but it’s everywhere you go.”
—Journalist Bridget Booher on silicon
2.1 Introduction
Silicon, the key material for today’s integrated circuit fabrication technology, is often
referred to as the king among semiconductors due to its usage and the exibility it offers
in the processing of a wide variety of different devices and circuits. Silicon produced for
the microelectronics industry is, by far, the purest and most perfect crystalline material
manufactured at present for a wide range of applications. Many devices are fabricated
routinely using silicon ...