Industry News
A sneak peek at wafer manufacturing
Most people don’t give too much thought to the tiny components which form such an integral part of almost all modern communication devices, from PCs to mobile phones.
Mobile chips get almost no public recognition in a world which seems to care more about screen size, shiny aluminum casings and apps - yet without powerful application processors, our handsets and devices would be nothing more than bricks.
Making chips, however, is no easy task, nor is it a cheap one, resulting in many firms choosing to outsource their manufacturing to dedicated “fabs” to feed the almost insatiable modern appetite for smaller, faster processors.
In Singapore recently, RCR was privileged to be able to get a glimpse behind the chipmaking curtain at GlobalFoundries’ fab 7, where wafer upon wafer of chips are churned out daily from within the impressive maze of cleanrooms.