Silicon Price Facts You Should Know

Did you know that silicon prices can be around $10 to $500? Their cost depends on certain factors that include the demand and supply, the silicon wafer’s quality grade, and the economy. If you plan on using silicon wafers for your next project, it’s best to stay on top of silicon’s price trends.

Facts About Silicon Prices

Pure Silicon Isn’t Naturally Produced

The type of material that’s used to create something heavily influences the product’s overall cost. One of the materials that are most widely used to create wafers is silicon. However, the element must be in its purest form before it can be used to produce wafers.Although silicon makes up about 28% of the earth’s mass, its purest form isn’t naturally produced. A tedious and lengthy process has to be completed before this pure element can be used to create wafers. After being extracted from quartz rock, silicon has to be refined and mixed with a dopant to change its properties and electrical characteristics.

Silicon Wafer Production is Costly

After undergoing several processes, a silicon ingot with a purity level of 99.9999% is produced. With the ends of the ingot cut off, the rest of its body is sliced thinly to create wafers. The surface damage found on these wafers is eliminated via chemical etching and polishing before they go through various processes to produce semiconductors.This complicated industrial process requires costly machinery and equipment that can cost roughly $10 billion to construct.

The Price of Silicon Wafers Depends on Their Grade and Use

Silicon wafers come in different grades, including prime grade, test grade, and dummy grade. If you’re looking to find high-quality wafers that are best used for computer chip production, photolithography, and particle monitors, you’ll want to use prime grade wafers. These wafers are more expensive than other alternatives. If you want to get the next best thing to prime grade wafers for fabrication control testing, fabrication control management, or equipment testing, choose the less expensive test grade wafers. However, if you’re looking for the least costly option that can be used for safety measures or for evaluating or improving a production process, go for dummy grade wafers.

Learn More About Silicon Prices!

At Wafer World, we offer high-quality silicon wafers at a reasonable price. Contact us for inquiries!

See 5 monthly Silicon prices and related assessments, covering 4 locations: United States, South America, Europe and China. The related assessments are focused on Silicone. Also check Silicon price history since 2007. The chart below is a sample of Intratec Primary Commodity Prices - subscribe now and gain access to current prices of 219 commodities, including Silicon.

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Price Dynamics. The price of Silicon in United States was flat during February 2019. On a year-over-year basis, the prices of Silicon in United States decreased modestly by 0.4%. Meanwhile, the average price of Silicon in Chinaamounted to 1,810 USD per metric ton, from 2,290 USD per metric ton one year earlier. On a month-over-month basis, the price of Silicon in China is 2% higher than the price one month before.

The price of Silicon in Europe declined slightly throughout February 2019, reaching 2,130 USD per metric ton.  The price in Europe is 3% lower than the average price in the previous month and 16% lower than the average price one year before. In contrast, the prices of Silicone in Europe decreased modestly during February 2019, reaching 8,910 USD per metric ton, which means a decline of 2% from the previous month’s price and . 

The prices of Silicon in South America experienced a modest decline of 10 USD per metric ton from the prior month's price, to 2,440 USD per metric ton. Such price movement in South America meant a decrease of 0.4% on a monthly basis and a decrease of 0.8% on a yearly basis.