Storing the wafers avoids paying the costs for packaging and testing in the case the chips will not be needed. Moreover, the packaged chips typically require a

Storing the wafers avoids paying the costs for packaging and testing in the case the chips will not be needed. Moreover, the packaged chips typically require a much larger volume for their storage than the wafers. A wafer may contain many thousands of chips. The wafers are normally stored in dry nitrogen, to avoid their chemical degradation during long term storage.