{"id":289844,"date":"2024-04-08T18:52:45","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T13:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=289844"},"modified":"2024-04-08T18:52:45","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T13:22:45","slug":"technology-behind-semiconductor-chip-manufacturing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/technology-behind-semiconductor-chip-manufacturing\/","title":{"rendered":"Technology behind Semiconductor chip manufacturing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source\u2013 This post on Technology behind Semiconductor chip manufacturing<\/strong>\u00a0is based on the article \u201cWhat is the technology behind manufacturing a semiconductor chip?\u201d<\/a><\/strong> published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d<\/strong> on 7th April 2024.<\/p>\n

Why in the News?<\/h2>\n

Recently, a rise in semiconductor global capability centres<\/span> (GCCs) has been seen in India with a focus on design, testing and validation. The TATA group has partnered with Taiwan\u2019s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation<\/span> (PSMC) to set-up a 300mm wafer fabrication plant in Gujarat<\/span>. It will roll out its first 28nm chip in 2026. Two assembly and test plants in Gujarat and Assam have also been recently approved by the Government of India.<\/p>\n

About semiconductor chip<\/h2>\n
\"Semiconductor
Source: The Hindu<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

1. Semiconductors have electrical properties between conductors and insulators.<\/p>\n

2. Its electrical properties can be changed by adding small amounts of certain substances called \u2018dopants<\/span>\u2019.<\/p>\n

3. By taking a pure semiconductor and carefully injecting certain parts with specific dopants, complex circuits can be \u2018printed<\/span>\u2019 on the semiconductor.<\/p>\n

What is transistor and how it is used?<\/h2>\n

1. The transistor is one of the earliest electronic components to be built using a semiconductor. It is an extremely versatile device. For ex- It can function as an electronic switch.<\/p>\n

2. A typical semiconductor chip can have millions\/billions of these interconnected switches<\/span> that work together to perform various logical and computational operations.<\/p>\n

3. Millions of these tiny switches can be found on a single chip, which work together to perform complex tasks<\/span>.<\/p>\n

4. Transistors are essential for devices that need to process signals, like those used for WiFi.<\/p>\n

Advances made in the fabrication technology<\/h2>\n

Technology has progressed at a relentless pace since the semiconductor chip was first conceptualised,\u00a0 more than six decades ago.<\/p>\n

Impressive gains in the switching capability of the transistors-<\/strong> The transistors are able to switch on-and-off faster (more computations per second<\/span>) and with lesser power consumption (longer battery life and lesser heat dissipation<\/span>).<\/p>\n

New manufacturing technology-<\/strong> The industry has used labels like \u201845nm<\/span>\u2019, \u201828nm<\/span>\u2019 and \u201816nm<\/span>\u2019 to introduce each new manufacturing technology. These numbers convey the level of miniaturisation<\/span> that is achievable using a particular technology (so smaller is better).<\/p>\n

Researchers aiming for decreased sizes-<\/strong>\u00a0 Researchers are aiming to stacking entire circuits on top of one another is another way to continue to shrink semiconductor chip sizes.<\/p>\n

Wafer<\/h2>\n

Wafer is a circular piece of semiconductor on which an array (typically 300-400) of chips are printed. This is then diced to create individual chips. A larger wafer size allows more chips to be printed on a single wafer<\/span> which makes chip production faster and cheaper.<\/p>\n

Wafer sizes used in the industry have constantly been increasing<\/span>. The current size if the wafer is 300mm which is approximately 12 inches. Efforts are ongoing to move to a 450mm wafer size.<\/p>\n

While moving to a larger wafer size has its technical challenges and capital expenses<\/span>, it has proven to be economical in the long run.<\/p>\n

Assembly and test plant<\/h2>\n

A chip is tested for its functionality and stress (subjecting the chip to high temperature and voltages<\/span>) to ensure reliability during its lifetime. This is done in assembly and test plant.<\/p>\n

About India\u2019s semiconductor ecosystem<\/h2>\n

1. India’s chip design sector has been booming since the 1990s<\/span>, leveraging computer-aided design to create semiconductor chips entirely in software.<\/p>\n

2. This involves outlining the chip’s functions, converting these into electronic circuits, and refining them for efficiency, power, and size by skilled engineers using desktops.<\/p>\n

3. The finalized design is then sent as a file to a manufacturing plant for production, akin to sending a digital graphic novel to a publisher.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Semiconductor production opens doors for a broader range of experts<\/span>, including process and control engineers, data scientists, material scientists, physicists, and chemical engineers, to significantly contribute to the industry.<\/p>\n

Read more: <\/strong>Semiconductor fabrication<\/a><\/p>\n

UPSC Syllabus: Science and technology<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source\u2013 This post on Technology behind Semiconductor chip manufacturing\u00a0is based on the article \u201cWhat is the technology behind manufacturing a semiconductor chip?\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 7th April 2024. Why in the News? Recently, a rise in semiconductor global capability centres (GCCs) has been seen in India with a focus on design, testing and… Continue reading Technology behind Semiconductor chip manufacturing<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10366,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1738],"tags":[11872,10498],"class_list":["post-289844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-science-and-technology-daily-factly-articles","tag-9pm-daily-factly","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289844\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}