A FAB BUYS, IT DOESN'T BUILD

No single company builds everything a chip needs

a fab assembles tools and materials it didn't invent

A fab doesn't manufacture its own scanners, etchers, or silicon wafers. It buys them from a small set of specialized suppliers, each of whom focuses on one piece of the puzzle and sells it to every fab in the world that needs it.

A modern chip depends on an entire ecosystem the fab itself never touches directly, until it arrives.

THE SUPPLY CHAIN

Three streams, all feeding one fab

Equipment makers supply the scanners, etchers, and deposition tools. Materials suppliers provide wafers, gases, chemicals, and photoresist. EDA software designs and verifies the chip before any of it is built. All three converge on the fab itself.

The fab is where these three separate industries meet and become one product.

THE TOOL MAKERS

A short list of specialists

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ASML

The only company that builds production EUV lithography scanners

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Deposition & etch

Companies such as Applied Materials, Lam Research, and Tokyo Electron

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Metrology

Specialized suppliers build the CD-SEM and other measurement tools covered earlier

Losing access to even one of these suppliers can stall an entire industry.

THE MATERIALS SUPPLIERS

Inputs a fab can't make itself

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Silicon wafers

Grown, sliced, and polished by dedicated wafer manufacturers

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Chemicals & gases

Ultra-pure resist, dopant sources, and process gases

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Photomasks

Made by specialized mask shops from a fab's own design files

Every material in this course came from a supplier outside the fab's own walls.

UNIT 45 STUDY COMPLETE

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Ready for the Fab Challenge?

You've covered the equipment makers and materials suppliers a fab depends on completely.