Divide Commercial Silicon Into Silicon Metal

"Silicon Metal" (also known as industrial silicon in China) is a commodity name that appeared in the mid-1960s. Its emergence is related to the rise of the semiconductor industry. The international practice is to divide commercial silicon into metallic silicon and semiconductor silicon. Silicon metal is made of quartz and coke in the electric furnace smelting products, the content of the main component silicon element is about 98% (containing 99.99% Si content is also included in silicon metal), the remaining impurities are iron, aluminum, calcium and so on.

Semiconductor silicon A high-purity metallic silicon used to make semiconductor devices. It is sold in polycrystalline and single crystal form, the former is cheap, the latter is expensive. It is divided into various specifications for different uses. According to statistics, in 1985, the world consumed about 500,000 tons of metal silicon, of which about 60% were used for aluminum alloys, less than 30% were used for organosilicon, about 3% were used for semiconductors, and the rest were used for steel smelting and precision ceramics.