Communications of the ACM
The Huge Endeavor to Produce a Tiny Microchip
At Intel’s complex in Chandler, AZ, pods holding up to 25 of the silicon wafers used to make chips move on automated overhead tracks.
Credit: Philip Cheung
Some feature more than 50 billion tiny transistors that are 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. They are made on gigantic, ultraclean factory room floors that can be seven stories tall and run the length of four football fields.
Microchips are in many ways the lifeblood of the modern economy. They power computers, smartphones, cars, appliances and scores of other electronics. But the world's demand for them has surged since the pandemic, which also caused supply-chain disruptions, resulting in a global shortage.
That, in turn, is fueling inflation and raising alarms that the United States is becoming too dependent on chips made abroad. The U.S. accounts for only about 12 percent of global semiconductor manufacturing capacity; more than 90 percent of the most advanced chips come from Taiwan.
Intel, a Silicon Valley titan that is seeking to restore its longtime lead in chip manufacturing technology, is making a $20-billion bet that it can help ease the chip shortfall. It is building two factories at its chip-making complex in Chandler, AZ, that will take three years to complete, and recently announced plans for a potentially bigger expansion, with new sites in New Albany, OH, and Magdeburg, Germany.
From The New York Times
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