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MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. produces wafers for the semiconductor industry. The company provides wafers in sizes ranging from 100 millimeters (4 inch) to 300 millimeters (12 inch) and in three general categories: prime polished, epitaxial and test/monitor. It also sells intermediate products such as polysilicon, silane gas, partial ingots and scrap wafers to semiconductor device and equipment makers, solar customers, flat panel and other industries.
Products
The company offers wafers with a variety of features to meet customers’ exacting requirements. Its wafers vary in diameter, surface features, composition, purity levels, crystal properties and electrical properties. These wafers range from 100 millimeter to 300 millimeter in diameter. Its wafers are used as a starting material for the manufacture of various types of semiconductor devices, including microprocessor, memory, logic and power devices. In turn, these semiconductor devices are used in computers, cellular phones and other mobile electronic devices, automobiles and other consumer and industrial products. The company, in addition to other new product offerings, offers wafers with the Magic Denuded Zone, or MDZ, product feature. Its products include three general categories of wafers:
Prime Polished Wafers
The company’s prime polished wafer is a refined, pure wafer with an ultraflat and ultraclean surface. Its prime polished wafers are manufactured with a chemical-mechanical polishing process that removes defects and leaves a smooth surface. The company’s OPTIA wafer is a crystalline structure based on its technologies and processes, including MDZ. Its annealed wafer is a prime polished wafer with near surface crystalline defects dissolved during a thermal treatment.
Epitaxial Wafers
The company’s epitaxial, or EPI, wafers consist of a thin silicon layer grown on the polished surface of the wafer. The epitaxial layer has different electrical properties from the underlying wafer. The company’s AEGIS product is designed for certain specialized applications requiring high resistivity epitaxial wafers and its MDZ product feature. The AEGIS wafer includes a thin epitaxial layer grown on a standard starting wafer. The AEGIS wafer’s thin epitaxial layer eliminates harmful defects on the surface of the wafer.
Test/Monitor Wafers
The company supplies test/monitor wafers to its customers for their use in testing semiconductor fabrication lines and processes.
Joint Venture
The company has an 80%-owned consolidated joint venture in South Korea known as MEMC Korea Company or MKC.
Customers
The company’s customers include all of the major semiconductor device manufacturers, including the major memory, microprocessor and applications specific integrated circuit, or ASIC, manufacturers, as well as foundries.
Competition
The company’s competitors include Shin-Etsu Handotai, SUMCO and Siltronic. For solar wafers, it competes with various companies, including BP Solar International, Evergreen Solar, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Q-Cells AG, Sanyo Corporation, Sharp Corporation, SolarWorld AG and SunPower Corporation.
History
MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. was founded in 1984.
