Why 80% of Chips are Manufactured on Silicon Wafers？

We see today that more than 80% of chips are produced from silicon wafers, rather than with today's popular materials such as silicon carbide, gallium arsenide, gallium nitride, etc. Why is that?
Selection criteria for materials

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There are several main factors to consider when choosing a material to be used to produce a chip: Electronic properties: The material must have good semiconductor properties that can effectively control the movement of electrons. Crystal structure: Materials need to have a high-quality single crystal structure to reduce defects and improve the performance of the chip. Cost: The cost of materials needs to be relatively low for mass production. Processability: Materials need to be easy to process and prepare, and able to adapt to existing manufacturing processes. Thermal stability: Materials must be able to withstand changes in performance at high temperatures during manufacturing.

The reason why silicon is the material of choice
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2.1 Semiconductor properties
Silicon is an excellent semiconductor material with a bandgap of 1.12 eV, which is moderate and suitable for the operation of most electronic devices. Silicon also has good electron mobility and hole mobility, making it suitable for manufacturing high-performance chips.

2.2 Crystal structure

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Silicon can be used to produce high-quality, large-size single crystals by processes such as the Czochralski method and zone melt method. The silicon crystal structure is perfect and the lattice defects are few, which is conducive to the production of high-performance integrated circuits.

2.3 Cost
Silicon is the second most abundant element in the earth's crust (about 26.7%), and its raw material (quartz) is very abundant and cheap. Compared to other semiconductor materials such as gallium arsenide (GaAs) and silicon carbide (SiC), the extraction and preparation costs of silicon are significantly lower.

2.4 Processability
Silicon has good mechanical strength and chemical stability, allowing it to withstand complex manufacturing processes. Existing semiconductor manufacturing processes (lithography, diffusion, ion implantation, etc.) are all developed based on silicon materials, so the processing technology of silicon wafers is mature and low-cost.

2.5 Thermal stability

Silicon has excellent stability at high temperatures, capable of maintaining its crystal structure and properties stable at temperatures up to 1100°C. This allows silicon to adapt to the needs of high-temperature process steps in modern chip manufacturing.

Challenges with other materials
Although other materials such as gallium arsenide (GaAs), silicon carbide (SiC), and gallium nitride (GaN) also have excellent semiconductor properties, they present some challenges in terms of cost, processability, thermal stability, etc.:
Gallium arsenide (GaAs): high electron mobility, but brittleness, high manufacturing cost, and difficult to prepare large-size single crystals.

Silicon carbide (SiC): Wide bandgap for high-temperature and high-pressure applications, but difficult to grow crystals and costly.

Gallium nitride (GaN): It has excellent electronic properties and thermal stability, but the material is complex to synthesize and costly.

In fact, silicon as a semiconductor material has many advantages, including good semiconductor properties, high-quality crystal structure, low cost, mature processing technology and excellent thermal stability. These factors make silicon the material of choice for making chips, although other materials also have their own unique advantages in specific application areas.