Our latest #explainer is on semiconductors and the global chip shortage! Here is a brief background on them 🧵
1) Semiconductor shortages have been big news since the pandemic. No single factor explains them. COVID was clearly an exacerbating factor, but the issue has been around for much longer.
2) Shortages lie predominantly in the more ‘mature’ (older generation) chip types, where investment spend is smaller and there is less incentive to increase production.
3)A semiconductor is a substance with an electrical resistivity between the very low levels of conductors and very high levels of insulators. We can change semiconductor resistivity by introducing impurities (doping). The most used semiconductor (due to its abundance) is silicon.
4) Producing a silicon chip involves:
Refining sand into silicon.
Purifying, melting, and cooling the silicon into a cylindrical crystal.
Slicing the silicon into very thin wafers (circular cross-sections).
Building a grid of rectangular/square chips onto the wafers.
Refining sand into silicon.
Purifying, melting, and cooling the silicon into a cylindrical crystal.
Slicing the silicon into very thin wafers (circular cross-sections).
Building a grid of rectangular/square chips onto the wafers.
5) To read our full explainer on this topic, as well as other explainers on complicated matters, head over to macrohive.com
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