What type of wafers are used at Intel to computer chips?

Answer 1

Pure silicon - a primary ingredient of beach sand - changes from being an insulator to become a semiconductor of electricity after it has been "doped" with tiny but very accurately measured amounts of other materials.

A piece of semiconductor material behaves either as a conductor or as an insulator depending only on the polarity of the applied voltage.

12 inch diameter wafers are cut from an ingot which is a single crystal of silicon that's about the size of a loaf of bread. Circuit elements only 45 nanometers wide are then formed on the wafers in several layers by using repeated high-precision area-doping and chemical etching techniques.

In addition to using doping to create "n-type" and "p-type" transistors, Intel also uses Ge doping to create SiGe areas near or in the transistors to introduce mechanical strain. The strain is due to crystalline lattice mismatches between the Si and SiGe. The strain is introduced to increase the drive current of the transistors, making them able to switch on faster than they would otherwise.

Silicon Ingot:

A large, cylindrical, single crystal made from purified silicon. The cylinder is sliced into thin wafers which are used for making computer chips.

Silicon Wafer:

To make microprocessors, Intel uses wafers cut from pure silicon ingots.

Answer 2

Silicon wafers.