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June 19, 2007

Scrap chip wafers 'like gold' for solar

  • Until 2004, used wafers were typically little more than a nuisance, but the voracious appetite of solar panel makers has changed all that.
    • By MATT ANDREJCZAK
    Dow Jones

    SAN FRANCISCO — Not long ago, scrap chip wafers were considered all but worthless, sent to landfills or recycling centers. But semiconductor makers have found a new home for the millions of wafers they exhaust each year: the emerging solar industry.

    Amid tight supplies of polysilicon, selling the chips has become a worthwhile side business for chip manufacturers such as Texas Instruments Inc., National Semiconductor Corp., and Freescale Semiconductor Inc.


     
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