This is a list of silicon producers. The industry involves several very different stages of production. Production starts at silicon metal, which is the material used to gain high purity

silicon Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic ta ...

. High purity silicon in different grades of purity is used for growing silicon

ingot An ingot is a piece of relatively pure material, usually metal, that is cast into a shape suitable for further processing. In steelmaking, it is the first step among semi-finished casting products. Ingots usually require a second procedure of sha ...

s, which are sliced to

wafer A wafer is a crisp, often sweet, very thin, flat, light and dry biscuit, often used to decorate ice cream, and also used as a garnish on some sweet dishes. Wafers can also be made into cookies with cream flavoring sandwiched between them. They ...

s in a process called wafering. Compositionally pure polycrystalline silicon wafers are useful for

photovoltaics Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially ...

. Dislocation-free and extremely flat single-crystal silicon wafers are required in the manufacture of computer chips.

Polysilicon producers

Polysilicon producers: *

Elkem Elkem is a company that produces silicones, silicon, alloys for the foundry industry, carbon and microsilica, and other materials. Elkem was founded in 1904, has more than 7,000 employees and fields 30 production sites worldwide. Elkem has an ope ...

JFE Steel JFE Steel () is the second largest Japanese steel manufacturer. The company was created in 2002 through the merger of the steel manufacturing business of Kawasaki Steel and NKK (Nihon Kokan). It is owned by JFE Holdings, which is listed on the To ...

Nitol Solar Nitol Solar Group Ltd. was a vertically integrated company group based in Usolye-Sibirskoye, Russia. The company had two plants and was intended to produce solar-grade polycrystalline silicon from trichlorsilane by Siemens-process for solar ene ...

(Russia), bankrupt since 2019 * SunEdison * SolarWorld

High-purity silicon

Hemlock Semiconductor Corporation Hemlock Semiconductor (HSC) is the largest and only producer of hyper-pure polysilicon headquartered in the United States. Founded in 1961, it is owned by Corning Inc. and Shin-Etsu Handotai and named after Hemlock, Michigan, the location of its f ...

Renewable Energy Corporation The Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) is a solar power company with headquarters in Singapore. REC produces silicon materials for photovoltaics (PV) applications and multicrystalline wafers, as well as solar cells and modules. It is a wholly-ow ...

(REC) * SunEdison * Tokuyama Corporation *

Wacker Chemie Wacker Chemie AG is a German multinational chemical company which was founded in 1914 by Alexander Wacker. The company is controlled by the Wacker family holding more than 50 percent of the shares. The corporation is operating more than 25 prod ...

Silicon wafer manufacturers

A partial list of major producers of wafers (made of high purity silicon, mono- or polycrystalline) includes: * GlobalWafers * Okmetic *

* Shin-Etsu Handotai *

Siltronic Siltronic AG is a manufacturer of wafers made of hyperpure silicon, the basis for modern micro- and nanotechnology. The Munich-based company is one of the world's leading manufacturers of wafers for the semiconductor industry. History The compa ...

* SUMCO See also *

List of photovoltaics companies This is a list of notable photovoltaics (PV) companies. Grid-connected solar photovoltaics (PV) is the fastest growing energy technology in the world, growing from a cumulative installed capacity of 7.7 GW in 2007, to 320 GW in 2016. In 2016 ...

References

{{Companies by industry Silicon *

Silicon Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic ta ...