assembly, bump,burn in,die, diffusion, etch, epitaxy, fab, ingot , lot based manufacturing, probe, lead frame, molding, sort, substrates, wafer manufacturing process, semiconductor manufacturing process, turnkey, Advanced Ship Notice, Goods Reciept Notice,wafer map.

1. Everything you need to know about semiconductors and the buzz words.
About document
SEMICONDUCTOR
MANUFACTURING
PROCESS

2. TERMS YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE LEARNING THE SEMI
CONDUCTOR MANUFACTGURING PROCESS
ASSEMBLY
A step in semiconductor manufacturing in which the chip (die) is either encased in a
plastic, ceramic or other package or assembled directly on a printed circuit board or a
fully processed semiconductor device/circuit in the form of a chip is mechanically and
electrically connected to the package.
BUMP
The process of forming solder or gold bumps on bond pads of a die. The bumps maybe
formed by electroplating and evaporation.
BURN IN
Burn-in mirrors the worst-case bias that the device will be subjected to in the course of
its useable life by testing their electrical characteristics and functions at room
temperature and below.
DIE
A small block of semiconducting material, on which a given functional circuit is
fabricated. A wafer is sliced into pieces, each containing one copy of the circuit, called
die.
DIFFUSION
Diffusion and Ion implant are the two major processes by which chemical species or
dopants are introduced into a semiconductor such as silicon to form the electronic
structures that make integrated circuits useful.
ETCH
Etching is the process of removing regions of the underlying material that are no longer
protected by photoresist after development.
EPITAXY
Epitaxy is the process of depositing a thin layer of single crystal material over a single
crystal substrate, usually through chemical vapour deposition (CVD) in order to improve
the performance of bipolar devices.

3. FAB
Fabrication(Fab) is a manufacturing process in which an item is made out of raw or
semi-finished materials, on which a given functional circuit is fabricated.
INGOT
A Semi-finished solid metal form produced in a non-continuous casting process by
pouring liquid metal into large molds.
LOT BASED MANUFACTURING
Lot based manufacturing is generally order based Manufacturing process where
products are generally varying in nature more or less order by order / lot by lot you can
say.
PROBE
Process of probing/testing die in wafer form.
LEAD FRAME
The 'skeleton' of the IC package, providing mechanical support to the die during its
assembly into a finished product. It consists of a die paddle, to which the die is attached,
and leads, which serve as the means for external electrical connection to the outside
world. You may know exactly if you look at the picture showing what a lead frame is.
LITHOGRAPHY
Lithography is transferring a pattern from a photomask to the surface of the wafer.

4. LEAD FINISH
Lead finish is the process of applying a coat of metal over the leads of an IC to:
 protect the leads against corrosion
 protect the leads against abrasion
 improve the solderability of the leads
 improve the appearance of the leads
MOLDING
Molding is the process of encapsulating the device in plastic material. Transfer molding
is one of the most widely used molding processes in the semiconductor industry because
of its capability to mold small parts with complex features.
SORT
A test step where each individual die on a wafer surface is tested and bad wafers are
marked as bad and hence a wafer map is created. 'Wafer mapping' is a process in which
the performance of semiconductor devices on a substrate is represented by a map
showing the performance as a colour-coded grid. The map is a convenient
representation of the variation in performance across the substrate, since the
distribution of those variations may be a clue as to their cause.
SUBSTRATES
Substrates are parts that provide the package with mechanical base support and a form
of electrical interface that would allow the external world to access the device housed
within the package.
T=
WAFER
A thin slice, typically sawed from a cylindrical ingot of extremely pure, crystalline silicon.

5. WAFER MANUFACTURING PROCESS
You yet might not be clear about the term ‘wafer’, wafer manufacturing itself is a
complex set of processes. Let’s take a look.
Note: Each wafer lot essentially contains 25 wafers.

6. SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING PROCESS
The semiconductor production process can be divided into two sequential sub-processes
commonly referred to as front-end and back-end production, both of which contain
many steps.
Front-end refers to the fabrication from a blank wafer to a completed wafer (i.e. the
microchips are created but they are still on the wafer).
Back-end refers to dicing the wafer into individual chips and all the processes thereafter;
such as test, assembly and packaging.

7. END TO END TURNKEY AND WAFER SHIPMENT PROCESS
Now what is a turnkey?
Yet another term."Turnkey" means that you only provide documentation to someone
else to build something. They then source all the parts, get other parts modified or
made, etc. Basically you send them specs and money and they send you fully built
units.
But in the world of semiconductors turnkey is when the assembly and the test is don by
the same vender organization.
Few more things to learn in the process ASN (Advanced Ship Notice, issued by the
supplier before shipment), and GRN (Goods Receipt Notice, issued by the company
receiving contract for the intermediate wafer processing).