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Manufacturing and Supply Chain in Semi Industry

What is a Semiconductor - An Introduction A number of elements are classified as semiconductors including silicon, zinc, and germanium. These elements have the ability to conduct electrical current, and they can be regulated in the amount of their conductivity. Silicon is the most widely used semiconductor material because it is easily obtained. Silicon is basically extracted from sand. It has been used for centuries to make cast iron, bricks, and pottery. In ultra-pure form, the controlled addition of minute amounts of certain impurities (called dopants) alters the atomic structure of the silicon. The silicon can then be made to act as a conductor or a nonconductor, depending upon the polarity of an electrical charge applied to it. Hence, the generic term semiconductor.

1.1 Manufacturing processes

The semiconductor manufacturing process consists of four major stages: wafer fabrication, wafer probe, assembly and final test. Fabrication and probe are generally called "front-end" stages while assembly and test are termed as "back-end" stages. Wafers are thin disks sliced from ingots of specially grown crystals (typically Silicon). In a wafer fabrication factory (fab), a matrix of intricate circuit structures are built in several micro layers on each wafer through high technology processes including photolithography, high temperature diffusion, ion implantation, deposition of metals and thin films, and plasma etching. In probe, the wafer and the individual die are tested for gross functional integrity. Then, the matrix of devices is sliced and diced into individual die before being assembled into packaged devices (or chips) at assembly. Finally, the packaged devices undergo full functional testing in test before being marked and packed for shipment or storage in inventory.

Top level Manufacturing Process Figure above shows the top level manufacturing process, which shows only four major stages. Below Figure shows the manufacturing processes in detail.

Detail Manufacturing Process Product Structure

Semiconductors have an exploding bill of materials. A raw (blank) wafer is the starting point for all chips. Specific Die can be built on the wafer during fabrication. Die can be further customized based on the type of lead frames they are assembled into to form various packaged die. Packaged Die can be further differentiated based upon the kind of test specifications they have been certified against. In a special case known as "binning" the tested chips are sorted into bins of various grades. These are called binned parts. It is possible for chips that have been certified for tighter tolerances of criteria to be substituted for lower grade requirements. This is known as "downbinning". Chips are typically branded with a saleable part number identifier before shipping or storage into finished goods inventory (this is process is also known as marking). Die Raw wafer Bin FG

Packaged Device

Downbing & Substitute

Package Semiconductor Product Structure

Supply Chain Characteristics

The semiconductor manufacturing process includes four stages: Fab, Sort/Probe, Assembly and Test. Fabrication may take as long as 30 to 80 days, probe three days to one week, assembly one to two weeks, and final test may take from three to 10 days. Furthermore, the factories for the four stages of manufacturing are typically so geographically dispersed that it is commonly humored that a chip travels around the globe during its manufacturing process. Outsourcing is also very common in semiconductor supply chain. Figure shows the diagrammatic view for semiconductor supply chain.

Die Bank Fab Assy Assy Fab Test GEO Hub FGI OE Ms Distributors Outsourced-Fab General Semiconductor Supply Chain

Test