How is a microprocessor made?

From: Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com>
Date: Tue Oct 20 16:41:23 1998

> I've got a few old (circa 1984) samples of four-inch wafers
> from HP. I'd like to get a few more. Does anyone know of a way
> to get today's larger wafers, or rejected dies? Intel might
> be putting them in keychains, but I'd like some bare.

It used to be fairly easy to get reject wafers (which result when there's a
serious enough defect that none of the dice are expected to be functional).
However, since wafers are fairly expensive, there's a new industry of wafer
reclamation that takes reject wafers, shaves off the top, and polishes them so
they can be reused.

Most manufacturers do not use reclaimed wafers for production, but only
for engineering samples during the development process.

Rejected dice are somewhat easier to get, since there's generally no way to
reclaim them. However, the manufacturers don't sell them due to both lack of
demand and liability issues.
Received on Tue Oct 20 1998 - 16:41:23 BST