Modern Dictionary of Electronics, 7th Edition

W

W 1. Letter symbol for watt. 2. Symbol for energy or work.

wafer 1. A thin semiconductor slice of silicon or germanium with parallel faces on which matrices of microcircuits or individual semiconductors can be formed. After processing, the wafer is separated into dice or chips containing individual circuits. 2. A single section of a wafer switch. 3. Slice of semiconductor crystal material used as substrate for monolithic ICs, diodes, and transistors. 4. The thin slice of semiconductor crystal from which many hundreds or thousands of single monolithic device chips are ultimately obtained. Normally all techniques, such as epitaxy, photolithography, diffusion, and passivation, are carried out on the wafer before it is scribed and broken into ...