Flash session 1: Introduction to Semiconductors
By Avi
Klein, Senior Principal Engineer, Memory Technology
Strategy
Video | Duration: 8:25 min |
This session introduces the semiconductor industry, to which
flash memory belongs, and discusses the industry's basic units of
measurement. It defines Moore's Law, and explains how flash memory
has accelerated Moore's Law. It then focuses on silicon, including
the reasons for its popularity, its structure and its electrical
characteristics. This session concludes with a step-by-step
description of chip manufacturing - from silicon wafer to dies to
packaged chips
Chapter 1: Introduction
Introduces the topics to be discussed in this session, provides an
overview of the world of semiconductors, review basic measurements
used in this industry such as micron, nanometer and angstrom.
Discusses Moore's Law that defines semiconductor miniaturization
trends, discusses silicon, and why it has become the most common
material for semiconductors. Concludes with a review of the major
steps in chip manufacturing.
Chapter 2: Overview of Semiconductor
Industry
The semiconductor industry includes a variety of integrated
circuits that support different functionality such as processors,
controllers and memory
Chapter 3: Basic Units of Measurement for
Semiconductors
Discusses basic units of measurements for semiconductors such as:
centimeter, millimeter, micron, nanometers and angstroms.
Chapter 4: Moore's Law
Discussed the trend of miniaturization that was described by
Moore's Law in 1965.
Chapter 5: Flash Memory and Moore's Law
Explains how Memory capacity in bytes has doubled almost every
year, and the cost per Byte has decreased accordingly.
Chapter 6: Silicon Characteristics
Introduces silicon as a basic element used to manufacture
semiconductors and why is it so suitable for this industry. It
discusses the atomic structure of silicon.
Chapter 7: Silicon Wafer
Discusses what a silicon wafer is.
Chapter 8: Chip Manufacturing
Review the manufacturing flow required to turn silicon into a chip.
This process includes 2 steps: The 1st step is the wafer
preparation that includes growing silicon ingots, slicing thin
wafers and finally polishing the surface to insure high quality,
defect free surface. The 2nd step is wafer fabrication that
includes cleaning, layering, etching, patterning and doping.
Chapter 9: Summary
Reviews the subjects discussed in the presentation, including the
world of semiconductors, basic measurements used in this industry
such as micron, nanometer and angstrom, Moore's Law that defines
semiconductor miniaturization trends, special electrical properties
of silicon, and why it was chosen as the basic building block for
semiconductors and major steps in chip manufacturing.
Keywords
Semiconductors, Miniaturization, Bits, Bytes, Megabytes,
Gigabytes, Nanometer, Angstrom, Silicon wafer, Silicon
characteristics, Transistors, Non-volatile memory (NVM), Volatile
memory, NAND flash memory, Chip manufacturing, N-type conductor,
P-type conductor, Doping, Dies, Ingot, Wafer slicing, Wafer
polishing, Wafer fabrication, Fabrication (fab), Testing and
sorting, Yield Assembly, Packaging