wafer
n. countablen. a very thin, flat piece of material used to make computer chips. It is usually made of silicon and holds many tiny electronic circuits.
n. a thin, circular slice of semiconducting material, typically crystalline silicon, used as a substrate for the fabrication of integrated circuits. The surface is polished to a mirror finish to allow for precise photolithography.
The factory produces hundreds of silicon wafers every day.
Engineers must work in a cleanroom to prevent dust from landing on the silicon wafer during the etching process.
As manufacturing technology advances, the industry has transitioned to larger wafer diameters to increase the number of individual chips produced per batch, thereby improving cost efficiency.
From Middle English wafre, from Anglo-Norman wafre, waufre (Old French gaufre), from a Germanic source. Compare Middle Low German wāfel, Middle Dutch wafel (“honeycomb”), West Flemish wafer. See also waffle.
Commonly appears in the compound noun 'silicon wafer' within technical and industrial contexts.