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GF is a few nodes behind. Micron doesn't make semiconductors, they mostly make flash and whatnot. TI doesn't have the capacity or knowledge to expand to Intel's
by chneu 1y ago
GF is a few nodes behind. Micron doesn't make semiconductors, they mostly make flash and whatnot. TI doesn't have the capacity or knowledge to expand to Intel's size/capacity
- tbrownaw 1y ago> doesn't make semiconductors, they mostly make flash and whatnot Um. All that stuff is still semiconductors, just with different patterns printed on them.
- chneu 1y agoThis is a very wrong take. Fabs run on data. It takes years to gather that data. Fabs can't just be repurposed overnight. Yields must be good, which takes data, equipment, etc which is all extremely specialized. Very ignorant take.
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- johnecheck 1y agoYou're right but also wrong. Flash is just semiconductors etched in a different pattern than logic, but you don't print on semiconductors. Semiconductors are 'printed' on wafers via photolithography.
- kragen 1y agoIntel's wafers are made of silicon, which is a semiconductor. Silicon on sapphire hasn't been widely used for a long time, if that's what you're thinking of. Photolithography prints resists on semiconductor wafers which are then used to pattern the next process step, such as wet etching, plasma etching, oxide growth, epitaxial polysilicon growth, ion implantation, etc. These mostly remove semiconductor from the wafer or alter its properties.
- johnecheck 1y agoInteresting, I hadn't known that silicon is itself a semiconductor before all the circuits are added. Am I correct in saying that the etching process transforms a single semiconductor into billions?
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- kragen 1y agoNo, silicon is still just one semiconductor, just like water is just one liquid. The substrate is still just one piece of silicon, despite having many silicon semiconductor devices fabricated in it. Polysilicon layers may or may not be additional pieces of silicon.
- johnecheck 1y agoI see! Thanks for the info.
- kragen 1y agoHappy to help!
- tbrownaw 1y agoThe linked ppt here has a lot of details: https://fabweb.ece.illinois.edu/ https://fabweb.ece.illinois.edu/
- bink 1y ago> TI doesn't have the capacity or knowledge to expand to Intel's size/capacity I mean, they might if Intel were allowed to fail.
- kragen 1y agoMuch more likely that SMIC would, because TI isn't just 15 years behind; it also has the disadvantage of being in the US. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor_industry_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor_industry_in_Chin... for a look at what it looks like where conditions are more favorable.