All About Semiconductors
Introduction:
- Sand plays a significant role in our daily life. When used in its unprocessed condition, it serves as the material for home foundation construction. The sand can serve as the foundation for the semiconductor industry if it is further purified. India has long sought access to the underlying technology, but is just now beginning to realise its promise in the semiconductor industry. If this endeavour is successful, India will become one of a small number of nations with access to the technology and thousands of high-paying jobs will be produced.
About:
- A semiconductor chip’s basic building pieces, transistors, are meticulously made from a carefully selected material, frequently silicon.
- One of a transistor’s key functions is the encoding and processing of data represented by 0s and 1s.
- These transistors’ three constituent pieces are source, gate, and drain (or sink).
- The amount of current that flows between the source and drain terminals is determined by the voltage applied to the gate.
- The precise definition of “gate” in computing—an electrically powered gate that performs similarly to a physical gate—was created as a result of this design.
- By managing the gate’s “open” or “close” state, the transistor stores and processes the data on a semiconductor chip.
- The semiconductor stores bits of information.
- Each bit has two potential logical states at any one time.
- The more bits a semiconductor can store and the faster it can handle those bits, the more data it can process.
- The three parts of a transistor link to many metal layers that apply voltages on top of them, forming a complex web of electrical connections.
- The chip’s adaptability comes from the metal layers, which enable selective access to transistors, giving the chip the ability to perform a variety of tasks.
A number of nodes:
- The nomenclature of semiconductor nodes have historically been based on the length of the gate and the distance between neighbouring metal strips connected to the gate, the latter of which is known as the pitch when measured from centre to centre.
- They were typically equal in size. Over time, transistors have gradually shrunk in size.
- The amount of data that can be stored on a semiconductor chip and the amount of computing power available increase as the number of transistors on the chip increases.
- Although smaller transistors normally operated faster, as transistors got smaller, researchers observed a disparity between the gate length and the metal pitch. The inability to transmit data quickly enough was one of the problems that resulted from the size of metal wires being reduced, which is what led to this discrepancy.
- Node names technically have no impact on the actual physical size. Instead, marketers use them to suggest that one node is better than a previous iteration.
- Indian legacy nodes are required.
- Making tradeoffs is a necessary part of choosing nodes, just like in real life.
- Despite the fact that advanced nodes span in size from 10 nm to 5 nm, India is now focusing on 28 nm or higher.
- However, this does not indicate that we are developing outdated chip technology.
- One advantage of starting with legacy nodes is that it sets us up for long-term success.
- Legacy nodes are more practical and affordable than the most cutting-edge nodes, which are present in electronics like smartphones and laptops, for many applications, including robotics, military, aerospace, industry automation tools, cars, the Internet of Things, and image sensors.
- The most advanced node at any fabrication plant, or “fab,” will generate the majority of its revenue.
- Practically every commercial fab also keeps making older nodes to meet demand in the aforementioned industries.
Moving forward:
- In fact, the demand for legacy nodes will increase in tandem with consumer demand for electric cars as well as for ancillary vehicle technology like music players.
- Given these facts, it makes sense for the Indian government and business organisations to begin their journey in semiconductors with legacy nodes and progressively advance.
- Who knows, perhaps India will someday take the lead as the world’s chip manufacturing hub.
