Chipmakers' silicon scraps feed solar industry's hunger
 

*Source: News.com (http://news.com.com/Chipmakers+silic...tag=nefd.top)*
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Texas Instruments is finding millions of dollars in the garbage.

The chipmaker historically had sold its scrap silicon wafers--those wafers that, for one reason or another, can't be used to produce chips--at garage-sale-like events near its Richardson, Texas, headquarters. A 55-gallon drum of old wafers might have gone to a local hobbyist for $100 or so, according to Mike Hayden, the silicon procurement engineering manager at TI.

But as demand for processed, high-grade silicon substrates began to escalate in 2004, TI re-examined its policies and started selling its scrap wafers to makers of solar energy gear (http://news.com.com/The+greening+of+...-6166027.html).

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