[comp.arch] How do you make poly-silicon ingots?

mdeale@cosmos.acs.calpoly.edu (Myron Deale) (05/05/91)

Hello,
	well, the title says it all. To add more background, suppose I
bought two or three acres of desert which has lots of sand. Sand has
lots of silicon right? How do you turn that into poly-silicon ingots for
a wafer fab? Is it overly involved / complicated?


-Myron
// no flames please.

mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) (05/06/91)

That posting reminds me of something else.  Where exactly does semiconductor
silicon come from?  I vaguely remembering hearing that the starting
material comes from someplace weird, like it's a by-product of the
Bessemer converter process for making steel or something.