Photos: Reclaiming silicon with water

IBM has come up with a way to scrape off circuitry from unusable wafers with water and sell the silicon to the solar industry, which has been struggling with a shortage of raw materials since the beginning of 2004. Rather than smooth out the surface of the wafer, the primary goal of the water polishing process is to erase any intellectual property or chip designs on the wafer.

Michelle Bolz, an IBM manufacturing engineer, shows off a solar panel.