Should gadget lovers revolt at this prospect, the economics of leading-edge wafer manufacturing will certainly feel the knock-on effects.

FORBES: 2013 Looks Like A Banner Year For TSMC But Threats Are On The Horizon

The firm also sells imaging and infrared detector products that SunPower makes using its thin-wafer manufacturing process for solar cells.

FORBES: Magazine Article

If Proteus is right, and these sensors become commonplace, exponential growth in digital medicine for compliance monitoring will require as much silicon wafer manufacturing as all computer chips use today.

FORBES: Ingestible, Implantable, or Intimate contact; How Will You Take Your Micro-scale Body Sensors

Gartner contends wafer fab manufacturing capacity utilization will decline below 80 percent by the end of 2012 before slowly increasing to about 85 percent by the end of 2013.

FORBES: Connect

In 2008, Trina is determined to "lower our module manufacturing costs through constant improvements in cell efficiencies, wafer thickness reduction, and manufacturing process innovation, " he added.

FORBES: Magazine Article

The company said its module manufacturing capacity would remain at 2.4 gigawatts while wafer capacity stays at 1.6 gigawatts.

FORBES: Suntech Cuts Solar Cell Production In China

Under current manufacturing techniques, manufacturers take their sapphire or silicon carbide wafer and chop, or cut it into individual chips, which get tested and packaged.

FORBES: How Silicon Will Spur A Boom In Solid-State Lighting