AmberWave claims to have reduce defects by purposely encouraging the formation of "threading" defects, rather than attempting to inhibit them, which has proved problematic.

A limited number of the threading defects are allowed to form within the substrate. Apparently the researchers found that this limited the growth of more threading defects in the final substrate as well as reducing significantly the "dislocation pileups," which have been known to limit the inherent performance benefits of both the straining and SOI effects.

The ability to eliminate dislocation pileups therefore marks a radical advancement in the quality of SSOI substrates, according to AmberWave.