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3
Importance of Single Crystals for
Integrated Circuit Fabrication
3.1 Introduction
The rst step in the manufacturing of integrated circuits (ICs) is the preparation of a per-
fect single-crystal silicon. In crystalline materials, all atoms (or molecules) are arranged in
a systematic periodic fashion, and this periodicity extends throughout the entire crystal
in all three dimensions. If the periodicity is limited to shorter distances within the crystal
dimensions, then they are referred as polycrystalline materials, and the separation of these
polycrystalline areas are dened by physical boundaries. In this arrangement, the crystal
consists of ...