Industrial Implications of Crystal Quality

Abstract

The semiconductor and electronic industry consumption of single crystals is approximately doubling each year, and now accounts for a half billion dollar industry. While most of this volume is due to the silicon industry, other materials such as bubble memory garnets, sapphire for silicon-on-sapphire devices, III–V, and opto-electronic crystals are becoming increasingly important. In view of this economic driving force, it is not surprising that a high degree of competition exists between vendors of crystals eager to take advantage of the boom in sales, and that crystal users try to take advantage of such competition in order to obtain better quality material.