The semiconductor industry calls the cuts of a crystal die or dice. Is this term outside of semiconducting industries correct too?
For example, a crystal has been cut into small plates. What are the plates called then?
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I think in most cases a lapidarist would be trying to "cut" the largest single gemstone he could from an original uncut stone. But most of the cutting is actually grinding with an abrasive wheel, so the leftover bits would be dust, rather than chippings (or whatever they'd call the bigger leftover bits :)– FumbleFingersNov 14, 2012 at 0:02
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I'm not going to read all this (about how synthetic rubies are made), but I bet they don't normally make big ones and then cut off bits to be used separately. I'm pretty sure it'll be the same as artificial diamonds - it's harder to make big ones, so you only make them as big as your industrial application requires. Totally different to semiconductor wafers, where they make a big sheet with lots of independent circuits, because it's most cost-effective for that technology.– FumbleFingersNov 14, 2012 at 0:08
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@FumbleFingers my question was rather on the correct term for the "part i cutted off" - not on cutting technology– Jonas SteinNov 14, 2012 at 0:28
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1@FumbleFingers - if you HAD read that whole thing (I found it fascinating!) you'd have run across this passage: "One such improvement, developed by the Linde Division of Union Carbine Corporation, modified Verneuil's flame fusion process to grow thin rods of ruby crystals up to 30 in (750 mm) long. Such rods can easily be sliced into disks to produce large quantities of bearings." So, not a totally academic question.– MT_HeadNov 14, 2012 at 0:55
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1Not an answer but a comment. In case of small parts left over after obtaining the required larger piece from the stock, the term offcuts is widely used. However, it is possible the term is used in the diamond or other related industries for child products.– KrisNov 14, 2012 at 6:39
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2 Answers
In this context, the term "die" really only applies to the semiconductor industry. Depending on the industry, the terms "slice" or "sheet" might be better suited.
In your example of crystals, if you are specifically referring to piezoelectric crystals of the variety used in the semiconductor industry, the process involves dicing quartz plates in to what are known as "blanks", the blanks are then lapped and further processed before grading and finishing up as what's called a "quartz oscillator-plate" or "piezoid".
Back 1972-1974 I worked in the RCA CMOS LSI design shop in Camden NJ. The slices of semiconductor we used (but never actually touched) were referred to as wafers. I don't recall ever hearing another term used. We worked with both silicon and sapphire wafers. (Our shop never worked with germanium, that I know of.)
(Of course, this term applies to a thin, flat, uniform slice, used for integrated circuits and solar cells, not random bits chopped off while forming, say, a ruby into a multi-faceted gemstone.)
A piece of a wafer is called a "die" (and is produced by "dicing" the wafer, after the desired circuitry is first printed/baked onto the semiconductor surface.) My understanding is that that term comes originally from the cook's action of dicing vegetables, not the cubic piece used in gambling.
answered Mar 13, 2016 at 21:24
