Computer chip manufacturing operators wastes a considerable amount of precious silicon in their process. The new reclamation process which was discovered by computer giant IBM uses a specialized pattern-removal technique to remove the intellectual property from the wafer’s surface. This makes the wafers available either for reuse in internal manufacturing calibration, as “monitor wafers” or for sale to the solar cell industry.

Silicon wafers are used both as the starting material for manufacturing microelectronic products and as a monitor and control of the many steps in the manufacturing process. Discarded wafers cannot be sent to outside vendors to reclaim because of the intellectual property they contain thus they were either crushed and sent to landfills or melted down and resold.