CityU MSE Webinar Series – Introduction of Semiconductor Industry

 Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), CityU organized a webinar named “Introduction of Semiconductor Industry” on 11^th Dec, 2020. Prof. Louie Liu (MSE, CityU) was the guest speaker who has 27 years of experience in the semiconductor DRAM/LOGIC industry, 23 years of which were associated with TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co.) in Taiwan (from 130nm to 5nm technologies).

In the beginning, Prof. Louie Liu introduced TSMC background included largest IC, Fabs, Capacity and their Business.  Then he briefed 7nm Fab in which produced 130K wafers per month and employed 400 staff.  He said this foundry is fully automatic and achieved industry 4.0 operation.  The first EUV (13.5nm wavelength) is installed here. (EUV - Extreme ultraviolet lithography)

Then Prof. Liu mentioned the newest TSMC Fab for 5nm and 3nm would be built soon. The groundbreaking was on 24^th Nov 2020.

After that Prof. Liu briefed some background of semiconductor included its physical properties and materials.  The base of semiconductor transistor like a switch.  

And then he introduced the semiconductor industry and briefed the whole supply chain from IC Design to Mask to Manufacturing to Assembly and to Testing. 

Prof. Liu also mentioned the 5nm technology which employed in iPhone12 in which has 15B transistors near double to iPhone 11 (8.5B).

Finally, Prof. Liu briefed five future application included Cloud Computing, Smart Car, Smart Home, Mobile Communication and Medical Technology.  

Prof. Liu introduced the 3^rd generation of semiconductor using SiC and GaN and described their physical properties.  

Lastly, Prof. Liu mentioned some challenges especially on photolithography (EUV) that 13.5 wavelength light source generated by energizing the 30um tin droplet by CO2 laser.  Photo Overlay Control was also discussed and it could control down to 2nm in position.  He concluded that new technology, application, opportunity, market and business in semiconductor are coming.

Q&A:

I asked how to ensure the reliability of 5nm chip and what is critical component?  Prof. Liu said they needed to design the test program included temperature and extra high voltage to determine the life time of device.  In order to ensure reliability, they using multiple chips (backup system) in the same device for guarantee the operation safety.

Reference:

MSE CityU - https://www.cityu.edu.hk/mse/