Reclaim Wafers

Silicon is by far the greatest material expense in semiconductor manufacturing. Reclaiming wafers is a cost effective program that companies use to maximize the value of previously used silicon substrates. Due to the high costs of prime grade silicon and large volumes consumed, many semiconductor facilities use reclaimed wafers to optimize and monitor their manufacturing processes and equipment.

Reclaim involves removing unwanted material from the wafer with a combination of dry and wet processes, and then polishing & cleaning the wafer to restore the silicon surface to a usable grade. The nature of the typical process requires some removal of silicon. This means that after a number of reclaim cycles, the wafers become too thin to be used and must be replaced by new ones. Active Business Company GmbH offers supplied wafers to replenish fallout from reclaim pools.

Process Flow

Wafer reclaiming helps semiconductor manufacturers reduce their materials cost by maximizing the full life potential of their wafers.

The reclaim process starts with a refined wafer inspection, presorting wafers by type, thickness and resistivity. Each wafer is then lapped and/or etched to remove patterns, scratches and other surface defects, resulting in is a clean, high-quality wafer ready for polishing. Once a wafer is finished polishing, it gets a final cleaning. At the conclusion of the reclaim process, to verify that the finished wafers fully comply with customer standards and specifications, we perform a final quality inspection prior to packaging.

Finished wafers are transferred into cassettes that are free of contaminants. The cassettes are then double-bagged and labeled. To assist customers in tracking the life cycle of their wafers, we also offer a laser marking service.