Semicon-World

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...

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 ...

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...