Most people have seen photos and videos of microchips being built on silicon wafers.
Conversely, most people have no idea where those wafers come from. If you sent a photograph of a silicon crystal growing furnace to the Department of Software Engineering at your local university, I would wager that 80% of the students would have NO idea what it is!
Most wafers come from long, sausage shaped, brilliantly reflective, silver colored, metallic crystals. The individual wafers are literally sawed (usually wire sawed) off the hyper-pure sausage.
Since the 1960s, the diameter of silicon crystals have steadily increased from 25 mm (1 inch) to 300 mm (12 inches). The larger the diameter, the shorter the crystal length becomes because of weight issues. However, the larger the diameter, the more microchips can be created on one wafer.
Once the wafer is sawed off, it goes through many, many processes to create microchips. When the processes are complete, the individual microchips are sawed off, tested, and shipped.
In 2022, almost all these processes, from crystal growing to finished microchips, are highly automated. My point - human labor costs are not that significant.
It is incomprehensible to me that Europe and the USA have basically surrendered the mass production of microchips to Taiwan, South Korea, China, and Japan.
>Taiwan, South Korea, China, and Japan
I can see Taiwan, but the US is way ahead of all these other countries on your list.
For example, China can only produce very cheap low performance chips, where the key to success is squeezing that lemon for one more drop and making the inferior product just a fraction of a percentage cheaper.
I appreciate your comment.
We have the Democrat EPA.
They don’t.
Intel and TSMC are both building huge fab facilities in the Phoenix area.
Silicon crystal growing has about the same relationship to software engineering as modern lithographic high-speed printing has to the study of literature.
It is incomprehensible to me that Europe and the USA have basically surrendered the mass production of microchips to Taiwan, South Korea, China, and Japan.
We've seemingly surrendered the mass production of almost everything. That bag of clothespins you buy at Walmart says "made in China" on it. (I understand that it's probably not profitable to make clothespins in the US. But why China?)
Chips are made in the Far East because the overwhelming majority of them are immediately incorporated into consumer electronics products, and the overwhelming majority of them are made in the Far East. (Not saying that's a good thing, it's just a fact.)
Seppuku trade policy by the Uniparty.
This is so important! Microchip still has foundries in the US, and plans to build a few more.