Semiconductor Manufacturing Process

Semiconductor manufacturing process or semiconductor fabrication process refers to the series of steps used to create integrated circuits. The fabrication process comprises a series of chemical- and lithography-related steps whereby the electronic devices and circuits are built layer-by-layer on a piece of bulk substrate.

Overview

The series of steps required to create (or fabricate) a semiconductor device is called the semiconductor fabrication process. The fabrication process takes place in an ultra-clean factory called a foundry or a fab. A specific semiconductor fabrication process along with all its design rules is referred to as a technology node. Although historically, the nomenclature of technology nodes was to name them after the minimum feature size of the process, recent nodes have derailed into nothing more than marketing names. Currently, leading-leading fabrication processes are called 14 nm, 10 nm, and 7 nm.