What is the definition of a semiconductor process?
The definition of semiconductor process is often heard as "how many nanometers" process, such as the 5 nanometers process that TSMC leads the world in mass production or the 3 nanometers process that will be mass-produced in 2022, which is often reported in the media recently. Generally speaking, there is not much nanometer process for enterprises, which represents the Channel Length of a single Transistor. The shorter the channel length, the faster the conduction speed of the transistor, the higher the density level of the transistor per unit area (square between millimeters, mm2).anti vibration table The higher the computing power and storage function. For example, a length of 50 nanometers can only be put into a component less than 50 nanometers, a 5 nanometers process can be put into ten transistors, but for a 7 nanometers process, you can only put seven transistors into yourself. Therefore, we know that the higher the process used, the more transistors on the chip, the more powerful the function.
The challenges of advanced semiconductor processes
The semiconductor process is mainly to integrate a number of transistors on a single chip, through the silicon substrate (Si-Substrate) layer of metal wires, connected to the input and output of the transistor, to complete complex computing and storage functions.semiconductor test The global economic technology industry has a set goal for semiconductor manufacturing, mainly the number of transistors per unit area and the computing power provided per unit power consumption (per milliwatt, mW). Therefore, international semiconductor leading manufacturers such as TSMC, Samsung Electronics, Intel, etc., continue to invest in the development of transistor component structure and two-dimensional insulation materials, while reducing the size of components, but also to take into account the issue of energy saving, to avoid excessive power consumption can not meet the use of mobile devices specifications.
In addition, in the face of the miniaturization of semiconductor components, voltage probe through the connection of the upper metal wires, the production of more than 1 billion, 10 billion transistors on a single chip, on the one hand to ensure that the manufacturing process is perfect, on the one hand to ensure that the efficiency can continue to improve, master the extreme ultraviolet radiation (EUV) lithography machine has become the most important production tool in the wafer casting industry. The resolution of lithography equipment represents the minimum size that can be achieved, so some machines can only make 90 nm and 45 nm, while TSMC's current lithography equipment has successfully mass-produced 5 nm, and 3 nm has entered trial production, which means that more transistors can be implemented on a chip, providing higher computational efficiency and storage capacity. To meet the application requirements of emerging systems.