Why are silicon wafers commonly used to make integrated circuits?

Silicon wafers are the primary material used to manufacture integrated circuits because of silicon's unique properties as a semiconductor and the maturity of its associated manufacturing technology.12

Silicon is favored for several key reasons:

• Electrical Performance: Silicon devices exhibit significantly lower leakage currents compared to other materials like germanium, which was previously used in the industry.2
• Insulation Properties: Silicon can easily form silicon dioxide, a high-quality insulator that is essential for the fabrication of modern electronic devices.2
• Doping Capability: The electrical conductivity of silicon can be precisely controlled by adding specific impurity atoms, such as boron, phosphorus, or arsenic, allowing for the creation of p-type and n-type regions necessary for circuit functionality.12
• Material Purity and Scale: Silicon can be produced with extreme purity and grown into large, high-quality single-crystal ingots, which are then machined into wafers to meet the economic demands of mass-producing complex computer chips.3

Due to these advantages, silicon technology has become highly advanced, accounting for more than 95 percent of all semiconductor products sold globally.2