Posts

Featured

Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI): What does it mean?

-
Technology has come a long way in a short time, this is the sentence we keep hearing from our elders. The transition from telephones to pagers to cell phones felt earned and hard-fought, the switch from bulky, handheld, external keyboard phones to sleek, powerful, addicting smartphones was abrupt. The rate of progress has been astounding these past few years, and at the forefront of this revolution is the technology we call semiconductor devices. You thought I was going to say VLSI? Semiconductor devices have been around for a long time, the semiconductor effect was first noted in 1874 by Karl Ferdinand Braun. Then, crystal detectors for microwave radiation emerged in 1901 when Jagadish Chandra Bose demonstrated its working. The biggest discovery came in 1947, when the first transistor was invented at Bell Labs by John Bardeen, William Shockley, and Walter Brattain, and since that event we have never looked back. The solution to the bulky vacuum tube was the small and tiny transistor. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Artificial Intelligence Data Centres and their Utilities Bill: Beginning at Lake Tahoe

-
Image
By the end of the second week of May 2026, the news of an energy company named NV Energy emerged; they have informed the residents of Lake Tahoe that its energy deliveries are ending in May 2027. A new energy vendor will need to be found so that the residents can get electricity. The reason stated: growing demand of energy for upcoming AI data centres in the Nevada region. Well that just sounds amazing doesn't it. Your day-to-day life is getting impacted in favour of a large building filled with computers and servers. Figure 1: Lake Tahoe (Reference: Pexels ) Why was Lake Tahoe chosen? The area has a low average temperature year round . Maximum temperature recorded was 25.5℃ in 2006. This makes the location ideal for a facility requiring constant temperature control. This strategic location has caused a massive shock to the locals as the electrical energy is now being shifted to the invading corporation. The true comedy lies in the fact that this is not the first time the common pe...
Post a Comment
Read more

VIKRAM3201: Space grade versus regular processors

-
Image
Chandrayaan 3 was a landmark moment for Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). It showcased India's space prowess and demonstrated that space missions can be economical. In 2020, the mission was estimated around 75 million USD.  For comparison, Avengers Endgame spent around 200 million USD in just marketing . A moon mission cost lesser than a big budget superhero movie. As a result of this success, the spotlight has fallen on government laboratories. Keeping in line with the theme of this blog, we shall talk about semiconductor devices used in this mission; the one that has gained the most notoriety is the VIKRAM3201 32 bit processor used in the launch vehicle. Figure 1: VIKRAM3201 processor (Reference: SCL ) Figure 2: Chandrayaan 3 Lander (Reference: Scientific American ) This processor is a triumph of India's semiconductor capabilities. Designed by Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thumba, and fabricated in Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL), Mohali, it is a fully indigen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Mount Everest of Capital Investment: Understanding the huge barrier of entry in the semiconductor fabrication industry

-
Image
The economy drives the market. Where there is demand, there will be someone supplying that demand. Industries exist to turn a profit due to that demand. The electronics industry is huge with so many competitors on every level, with so many products ranging from heavy appliances like air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, to small and sleek gadgets like smartphones, earbuds, smart watches and the like. All these electronic goods have a never ending demand, so much so that the industry is facing issues in meeting it. All of these appliances have one thing in common: they all run on semiconductors. "Well just make more semiconductor manufacturing plants", will be your first thought; if only it was that simple. The semiconductor industry manages to find itself in quite a unique position, the ecosystem surrounding it is a tremendous interdisciplinary and international achievement. The raw materials and equipment required for running one fabrication plant on a commercia...
1 comment
Read more

Bottlenecks in Semiconductor Manufacturing: Global Inter-dependence

-
Image
Globalization has shaped our world and has created what we term as modern life. The import-export of goods and services across borders allow countries to fulfil their basic needs like food and fuel. Yet what happens when this balance is broken? The recent United States of America and Iran conflict is a textbook example. The blockade of one small channel of water called the Strait of Hormuz managed to raise oil prices by 20%. LPG shortage was felt the world over with households not receiving gas for cooking food. Hotels and restaurants had to stop serving some items or close down altogether. Another little industry being caught in the crossfire was the semiconductor industry, the same industry producing your mobile phones, laptops, televisions, solar panels, and all your day-to-day appliances. To begin with, let us be clear about the difference between LNG and LPG. Liquefied natural gas is methane stored in cryogenic conditions; the container is cooled to 167 degrees Celsius. Liquefied ...
Post a Comment
Read more

India's OSAT Revolution: A Long-time Coming

-
Image
Outsourced semiconductor assembly and testing (OSAT) facilities are popping up on the news quite frequently in recent times. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of India (MeitY) has approved, till publishing date, 8 packaging facilities. Heavyweights like Micron, HCL, Foxconn, and domestic companies like Continental Devices India Ltd. (CDIL) have invested a lot of money on these up and coming manufacturing plants. What are these facilities and what do they do? Let us dive into this question and come up with some answers. Figure 1: Description of semiconductor manufacturing flow. Semiconductor fabrication has two main fabrication areas; namely the front-end and the back-end. The frontend deals with manufacturing the circuits on the wafer. The processes that are covered here are: deposition , lithography , etching , chemical-mechanical polishing, and doping . The wafer remains intact in this stage and will be sent for packaging. This is where an assembly, testing, mark...
Post a Comment
Read more

Etching: Digging nanoscale trenches

-
Image
Beginner's introduction to etching. To lay underground cables, pipes, building foundations, and other such structures, we need to dig the ground up and then lay them below the surface. A loose connection during laying can mean either digging up the place again, or in the case of building foundation, keep reinforcing the structure to keep it from falling. A well dug-in pipe or a cable can last for a very long time. A strong foundation makes for a sturdy building. Etching aids in the formation of lasting layers of a semiconductor device. Figure 1: Location of etching in process flow. Etching is the process of removing unwanted material from the substrate. There are some portions that need insulation in a conductive layer and some places which may require conductive material deposited into an insulating layer. Removing that part and subsequently depositing the required material is where it finds its use. For all of our life on this planet, you can only exist in two states: wet or d...
Post a Comment
Read more

Deposition: Rich man’s brick laying

-
Image
Starter's first deposition. Construction is something that everyone of you has witnessed time and time again. Most of these buildings are made of brick and concrete. Concrete acts as the adhesive, joining the bricks together. Deposition is the construction of semiconductor manufacturing. Basic understanding of it is constructing thin films by laying atoms on a substrate. Atoms are the bricks and the bond between the atoms is the concrete. Figure 1: Location of deposition in the process flow. This topic is an absolute mammoth to cover due to the number of techniques and materials that can be laid on top of one another in such a minuscule scale. The huge range and properties of materials, whether they be elements or compounds, calls for multiple processing procedures. One technique may work for one material and may completely fail for the other one just due to a difference in melting point. There are three basic deposition principles: physical deposition, chemical deposition, and...
Post a Comment
Read more