What is it?
A material that can let current flow or stop it. Silicon is the most common one.
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What is a semiconductor?
A semiconductor is a material, usually silicon, that can let electricity pass or stop it. We can control it like a switch. A chip has billions of these tiny switches. It is the brain inside your phone, car and laptop.
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The 5 Basics
What is a chip?
A tiny piece of silicon with millions or billions of switches. It does the thinking in a device.
How is it made?
Design it, make it in a factory, pack and test it, then put it inside a device.
Who makes it?
Design companies plan it. Fabs make it. Packaging and testing companies finish it.
Why India?
Every device needs chips. India wants to design and make more at home, which creates jobs.
How a Chip Is Made
1
Design
Engineers describe the chip in code, like Verilog, and check it again and again.
RTL design · Verification2
Make (fab)
A factory prints the design onto a round silicon wafer, layer by layer.
Process · Equipment3
Pack and test
The wafer is cut into chips. Each chip is packed and tested.
OSAT · Test engineering4
Use
The chip goes onto a circuit board inside a phone, car or machine.
Embedded · HardwareWho Does What
Design companies
Plan the chip and test the design before it is made.
Jobs: RTL design, verification, physical design
Fabs (factories)
Make chips on silicon wafers in very clean rooms.
Jobs: process, equipment, quality
OSAT companies
Cut, pack and test the finished chips.
Jobs: test, packaging, reliability
Tool makers
Build the software and machines used to design and make chips.
Jobs: EDA software, field engineering
Words to Know
- Chip
- A small piece of silicon that does a job, like thinking or storing data.
- Wafer
- A thin round plate of silicon. Hundreds of chips are made on one wafer.
- Fab
- Short for "fabrication plant". The factory where chips are made.
- RTL
- The code that describes what the chip does, written in Verilog or VHDL.
- Verification
- Testing the design in software to find mistakes before it is made.
- Tape-out
- The day the final design is sent to the factory.
- OSAT
- Companies that pack and test chips after they are made.
- EDA tools
- Software that engineers use to design and check chips.
India and Chips
India is building its own chip industry
The government runs the India Semiconductor Mission to bring chip factories, packaging plants and design companies to India. Many big design centres are already in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.