A wafer, also called a slice or substrate, is a thin slice of semiconductor material, such as a create a rough surface to increase their efficiency.
The wafer serves as the substrate for microelectronic devices built in and over the wafer and undergoes many microfabrication process steps such as doping or ion implantation, etching, deposition of various materials, and photolithographic patterning. Finally the individual microcircuits are separated (dicing) and packaged.