With the continued price increase, wafer manufacturers are looking for ways to cuts costs without compromising the quality of their products, thus the popularity or reclaiming wafers. Several types of wafers, including GaAs, can be reclaimed to produce quality test or monitor wafers. One of the most popular types of reclaimed wafers is GaAs reclaim wafers.They're widely used in various LEDs, laser diodes, mobile components, and other high-powered powered applications because of their excellent properties. Here’s everything you need to know about reclaiming wafers.
Reclaiming wafers can be done in-house or outsourced from a reclamation facility. The process of reclaiming wafers involves getting rid of unwanted materials from the wafers using a combination of wet and dry processes and then polishing them to restore their mirror-like surfaces, making them usable and in a Grade A condition.After the reclaiming process, wafers are batch-sorted according to their thickness, bow, warp, flatness, and resistivity. Thin films can also be used to complete the process.
Reclaiming wafers can get rid of the photoresist, oxide, poly, and nitride present on the wafers’ surfaces. The process also helps get rid of copper and other metal contamination, obtaining particle-free, pristine surfaces.
During the reclaiming process, the wafers naturally lose about tens of micrometers. This means that GaAs reclaim wafers are thinner than virgin wafers. It also means that the reclaiming process may only be repeated until the wafers are too thin to be processed. When the reclaimed wafers start to chip or break, they’re no longer usable, which means that they need to be replaced with new ones.
Reclaiming wafers can help wafer manufacturers cut on costs without having to compromise the quality of their products. You can triple your savings, as a manufacturer can perform the reclaiming process multiple times. If you’re looking for high-quality GaAs reclaim wafers, you can get them from Wafer World! Contact us for inquires.
