China's first 12-inch wafer remanufacturing facility has successfully entered mass production, and it appears that the country will be able to independently produce wafer remanufacturing, which had previously been dependent on Japan.

According to foreign media reports, Hefei Ultron Semiconductor Co., a Chinese company, recently succeeded in mass production at its silicon wafer recycling facility in Hanui Province in eastern China.

This facility, which will recover and recycle damaged or contaminated 12-inch wafers in China, began construction in March 2020, and the total investment is known to be approximately $154 million.

The remanufacturing capacity is said to be 1.68 million wafers per year, with additional capacity to clean other manufactured parts at a rate of 1.2 million per year.

Until now, all defective semiconductor wafers in China have been sent to Japan for remanufacturing, but with the completion of this plant and successful mass production, it is expected that significant cost reductions will occur.

Although semiconductor manufacturing processes are conducted under strictly controlled conditions, defects can occur during the manufacturing stage due to static electricity or the use of contaminated materials.

Since the wafer cannot be used when a defect occurs, wafer reprocessing is performed to make the wafer usable again. First, the etched layer is polished using a diamond polishing disc and the structure is removed from the wafer.

Next, the wafer surface is chemically polished back to its original state, and finally, the entire wafer surface is chemically cleaned.

The recycled wafers are then packaged and shipped to customers, who can then reuse them in their manufacturing pipeline.