04-10-2010, 09:10 AM
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Prepared by:
G.Naga Sathish
D.Krishna Avinash
ABSTRACT
Since the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958,the number of processing steps required to make one has grown from less than 10 to several hundreds. At the same time, the silicon wafers on which the VLSI ICs are produced have gone from being coin sized to being dinner-plate –sized. Today one of these 300-mm wafers can yield more than 700 Ics.With such a large number of Ics coming from a single wafer and with wafers coming off manufacturing lines at rates of tens or thousands a month, companies can quickly find themselves suffering from losses especially in turbulent markets.Batch process which is being followed nowadays by VLSI chip makers is one of the main reasons for these losses. In batch process machines work on a large batch of wafers at the same time and take more than three months to produce VLSI Ics. To avoid the overproduction of chips,one method is to go for single wafer process. In single wafer process semiconductor companies will be able to produce chips more quickly when the orders came in, in the exact quantities specified by those orders. In this paper the IC fabrication steps are given in brief. Batch process and the Single wafer process are compared in detail.In the following years all manufacturers will inevitably adopt single wafer manufacturing process in order to have faster,cheaper , smaller and good quality chips.
INTRODUCTION
Integrated circuit was invented in 1958 by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments,USA. A Silicon wafer is divided in to number of small blocks.Each block will give us the required IC after undergoing many processing steps. Now 300mm wafers can yield more than 700 Ics.There are many companies like Texas,Intel,Motorola,National Semiconductors,Signetics etc..are manufacturing ICs all over the world in large quantities.
Since the bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2000 sent IC sales into losses. In the second quarter of 2001,the entire supply chain including chip makers, distributors,contract manufacturers and consumer-product manufacturers was with an excess of chips worth more than 13 billion dollars.
In the third quarter of last year(2004) chip oversupply was still at a worrisome 1.6 billion dollars,according to a preliminary analysis by a research firm.Semiconductor industry jobs in the US alone dropped from 2,68,000 in 1999 to 2,35,100 in july 2003,according to the US department of labour.
Semiconductor industry is still facing serious problems as it claws its way back toward profitably and sustained employment growth. And for economic and technological reasons, the relentless drive towards faster,cheaper,smaller and good quality chips is a growing problem.
Many companies are trying to get rid of this problem.This problem can avoided to some extent if ICs are manufactured with one wafer at a time process(Singular process) rather than many wafers at a time process(Batch Process).The IC process steps are given in brief and the advantages of singular wafer process over batch process are discussed.
Prepared by:
G.Naga Sathish
D.Krishna Avinash
ABSTRACT
Since the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958,the number of processing steps required to make one has grown from less than 10 to several hundreds. At the same time, the silicon wafers on which the VLSI ICs are produced have gone from being coin sized to being dinner-plate –sized. Today one of these 300-mm wafers can yield more than 700 Ics.With such a large number of Ics coming from a single wafer and with wafers coming off manufacturing lines at rates of tens or thousands a month, companies can quickly find themselves suffering from losses especially in turbulent markets.Batch process which is being followed nowadays by VLSI chip makers is one of the main reasons for these losses. In batch process machines work on a large batch of wafers at the same time and take more than three months to produce VLSI Ics. To avoid the overproduction of chips,one method is to go for single wafer process. In single wafer process semiconductor companies will be able to produce chips more quickly when the orders came in, in the exact quantities specified by those orders. In this paper the IC fabrication steps are given in brief. Batch process and the Single wafer process are compared in detail.In the following years all manufacturers will inevitably adopt single wafer manufacturing process in order to have faster,cheaper , smaller and good quality chips.
INTRODUCTION
Integrated circuit was invented in 1958 by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments,USA. A Silicon wafer is divided in to number of small blocks.Each block will give us the required IC after undergoing many processing steps. Now 300mm wafers can yield more than 700 Ics.There are many companies like Texas,Intel,Motorola,National Semiconductors,Signetics etc..are manufacturing ICs all over the world in large quantities.
Since the bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2000 sent IC sales into losses. In the second quarter of 2001,the entire supply chain including chip makers, distributors,contract manufacturers and consumer-product manufacturers was with an excess of chips worth more than 13 billion dollars.
In the third quarter of last year(2004) chip oversupply was still at a worrisome 1.6 billion dollars,according to a preliminary analysis by a research firm.Semiconductor industry jobs in the US alone dropped from 2,68,000 in 1999 to 2,35,100 in july 2003,according to the US department of labour.
Semiconductor industry is still facing serious problems as it claws its way back toward profitably and sustained employment growth. And for economic and technological reasons, the relentless drive towards faster,cheaper,smaller and good quality chips is a growing problem.
Many companies are trying to get rid of this problem.This problem can avoided to some extent if ICs are manufactured with one wafer at a time process(Singular process) rather than many wafers at a time process(Batch Process).The IC process steps are given in brief and the advantages of singular wafer process over batch process are discussed.