Updated - by Alison Li, October 4, 2023
By now you’ll have heard word on the street: a new iPhone 15 is here. But it’s under the hood of this iPhone – and other digital devices – where things really get interesting. That’s where top-of-the-line chips like Apple’s A17 Pro and A16 Bionic SoCs are making new, innovative technology possible. So how are these chips made and what are the most important steps?
We don’t need to tell you that modern digital devices – smartphones, PCs, gaming consoles and more – are powerful pieces of technology. Much of this power comes from microchips, some of the smallest but most detailed pieces of tech that exist. In 2021, semiconductor unit sales reached a record 1.15 trillion shipments. That’s about 145 chips for every person on earth. But despite what their widespread presence might suggest, manufacturing a microchip is no mean feat. To make any chip, numerous processes play a role. Let’s discuss six critical semiconductor manufacturing steps: deposition, photoresist, lithography, etch, ionization and packaging.
