This book is designed and written with both research and engineering practice in mind. Subjects pertaining to the fundamentals of wafer manufacturing and recent research advances are presented, as well as practical engineering and technology for practitioners in this industry. This book is ideal for a novice who wants to gain insightful information and knowledge about wafer manufacturing, and to learn how the prime (or premium) wafers that are used in microelectronics fabrication are produced. At the same time, this book is full of research topics and presentations of advances in fundamental knowledge about relevant manufacturing processes such that it will meet the needs of curious minds who want to investigate issues beyond the status quo and to study these processes with an objective to improve a myriad of related manufacturing processes.

Wafer manufacturing has been a field in which experience and engineering know‐how has played a significant role and was of instrumental value to the industry. With the emergence of new technology and research, the challenges are to understand fundamental process modeling in various manufacturing processes of wafer manufacturing, and to be able to apply this new knowledge in the process control and management of wafering processes. With the familiarity of both research issues and practical engineering, the authors strive to achieve the goals stated above.

The book is a must‐have for engineers and researchers in the field of wafer production and manufacturing. Although single crystalline silicon wafers are the majority of wafering done today in the industry, this book is also equally applicable, in many regards, to the wafer production of various crystal ingots such as III–V and II–VI compounds, silicon carbide, lithium niobates, and others.

It has been a major undertaking to commit to writing a book like this, although I have been conducting research in wafer manufacturing since 1994. This project has taken more time than was estimated initially when the first agreement was signed with the Wiley publisher. My goal was and still is to make this book a resource for those who want to understand the many aspects of wafer manufacturing technologies, as well as for those practitioners who want to utilize the knowledge to improve the existing processes.

Strict quality control has been imposed on the content of this book and subjects have been added or removed along the process of writing to make it as relevant as possible, based on the best judgment in the field. This book is put together with the best intent and effort, although it is far from being perfect. I welcome feedback and comments from readers, who can email me at [email protected], or send postal mail to: Professor Imin Kao, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stony Brook, NY 11794‐2300, USA.