From Sand to Tech: Global journey of the semiconductor

CGTN Europe

How does a grain of sand become the tech brain in your phone? Here is a breakdown of the incredible global supply chain behind semiconductors. 🌍✨  #TechExplained #economics #economy #semiconductors #hitech

Transcript

00:00Every time you tap your smartphone, you're relying on a tiny but powerful invention.

00:04The semiconductor.

00:06As a fundamental building block of microchips, the brains behind modern technology,

00:11it conducts electricity, but only in certain conditions.

00:15So it acts like a traffic light, controlling currents within computers.

00:19A semiconductor begins life as a grain of quartz sand

00:23that's mined in the United States or Australia.

00:26It's then purified into silicon crystals.

00:29A process carried out in places like Germany or Japan.

00:32From there, the silicon crystals go to precision manufacturing factories

00:36in South Korea, Japan, and the U.S.

00:39to be sliced into thin wafers.

00:41Companies like NVIDIA, Huawei, and TSMC lead the globe in chip designs.

00:46The designs are sent to fabrication plants, or fabs, across Asia and America.

00:51These facilities use highly specialized machines

00:54to print the chips' intricate layers and circuits onto the wafers.

00:57For many chips, the next port of call is China,

01:00where they're assembled, tested, and packaged,

01:03ensuring they're ready for integration.

01:06But that's just the beginning of a new supply chain,

01:09whether it's for a car, a mobile phone, a medical scanner,

01:12an airplane, or even a space rocket.

Category

Transcript

Recommended