13. Single-Crystal Silicon: Growth and Properties

It is clear that silicon, which has been the dominant material in the semiconductor industry for some time, will carry us into the coming ultra-large-scale integration (ULSI) and system-on-a-chip (SOC) eras, even though silicon is not the optimum choice for every electronic device. Semiconductor devices and circuits are fabricated through many mechanical, chemical, physical, and thermal processes. The preparation of silicon single-crystal substrates with mechanically and chemically polished surfaces is the first step in the long and complex device fabrication process. In this chapter, the approaches currently used to prepare silicon materials (from raw materials to single-crystalline silicon) are discussed.