Explained: The unbelievably complex process of making semiconductor chips
The news of Foxconn-Vedanta's $19.5 billion semiconductor deal falling apart may be a temporary setback for India, striving to achieve its vision of becoming a major global hub in semiconductor manufacturing over the next decade. However, catching up with the global majors and setting up infrastructure may need more than a robust ecosystem, especially since it comes in the face of deteriorating demand for chips, particularly high-end, as the global economy contracts. Making the chips is an unbelievably complex and specialised process
Curated By: Madhu Kapparath
Creating a chip takes hundreds of steps, each with many variables, leading to less than a quarter of the final output being usable. After six to eight weeks of painstaking etching and testing, each wafer can be carved into individual chips for dispatch. To carve these, Taiwan-based TSMC relies on the extreme ultraviolet lithography machines made by just one Dutch firm ASML. Each of these machines costs around $200 million a set.
