Semiconductor Manufacturing Tour
Table of Contents
Slide 3 of 22
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The whole semiconductor manufacturing process hinges on the use of a photographic process to create the fine featured patterns of the integrated circuit. Each layer of the chip is defined by a specific mask, and there are 16 to 24 mask layers in each IC.
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The mask is somewhat like a photographic negative, which is made by patterning a film of chromium on a pure quartz glass plate. These finished plates are called reticles. Reticles are manufactured by very sophisticated and expensive pattern generation equipment, which is driven from the chip design database. The patterns are formed on the chromium plated quartz plated by removing the chromium with either laser or electron-beam driven tools.
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As transistor features are reduced, more components are placed on each chip, requiring larger, more complex patterns to be drawn. This all takes longer to write the masks. Each new design or die shrink requires new mask tooling, so this segment is driven by new product acceleration.