How many chips can be cut from a wafer? (with calculator)

Latest update time：2021-08-31 18:44

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How many chips can be cut from a wafer?

This depends on the size of your die, the size of your wafer, and the yield.

At present, the so-called 6-inch, 12-inch or 18-inch wafers in the industry are actually the abbreviations of the wafer diameter, but this inch is an estimated value. The actual wafer diameter is divided into three types: 150mm, 300mm and 450mm, and 12 inches is approximately equal to 305mm, so for the sake of convenience, it is called a 12-inch wafer.

internationally Fab Factory General calculation formula:

Smart readers must have discovered that the square of π*(wafer diameter/2) in the formula is the formula for the area of a circle. If we simplify the formula, it becomes:

X is the so-called number of wafers that can be cut (dpw die per wafer ).

Then let’s test your calculation ability!

Assuming that a 12-inch wafer costs US$5,000 per piece, then the chip size of NVIDIA's latest masterpiece GT200 is 576 square millimeters. With a yield of 50%, how much is the average cost per chip in US dollars?

Answer: USD.87.72

To make calculations easier, click Read the original article to download Dedicated number calculator

Popular Science: The Difference Between Wafer Die and Chip

Let's start with a complete wafer :

A complete wafer

Glossary: Wafer is the wafer shown in the picture , which is made of pure silicon (Si). It is generally divided into 6-inch, 8-inch, and 12-inch specifications. Chips are produced based on this wafer. A small piece on the wafer is a chip wafer body, scientifically known as die, which becomes a particle after packaging. A wafer carrying a Nand Flash wafer is first cut and then tested. The intact, stable, and sufficient capacity die is removed and packaged to form the Nand Flash chip we see in daily life . Then, the remaining on the wafer is either unstable, partially damaged so the capacity is insufficient, or completely damaged. Considering quality assurance, the original factory will declare this die dead and strictly define it as scrapped.

The relationship between die and wafer

After the qualified die is cut, the original wafer becomes as shown in the figure below, which is the remaining Downgrade Flash Wafer.

Wafer after screening

These remaining dies are actually wafers of substandard quality . The removed part, that is, the black part, is a qualified die, which will be packaged by the original manufacturer to be made into finished NAND particles, while the unqualified part, that is, the part left in the picture, will be treated as waste.

Wafer size development history (estimated)

Global Top 10 Foundries Revenue Ranking (2014)

Inventory of the top 30 global wafer foundries in 2015

The life cycle of an integrated circuit chip is the process of turning sand into gold: the chip company designs the chip - the chip foundry produces the chip - the packaging and testing factory performs packaging and testing - the system integrator purchases the chip for system production.

Chip suppliers are generally divided into two categories: one is called IDM, which is generally understood as an enterprise that integrates multiple links in the industrial chain, such as chip design, manufacturing, packaging and testing. Some even have their own downstream complete machine links, such as Intel, Samsung, and IBM, which are typical IDM companies.

The other type is called Fabless, which is a chip supplier that does not have a chip processing plant. Fabless designs, develops, promotes and sells chips themselves, and outsources production-related businesses to professional manufacturers such as Qualcomm, Broadcom, MediaTek, Spreadtrum, etc.

Corresponding to Fabless are Foundry (wafer foundry) and packaging and testing plants, which mainly undertake the production and packaging and testing tasks of Fabless. Typical Foundry (wafer foundry) include TSMC, GlobalFoundries, SMIC, UMC, etc., and packaging and testing plants include ASE, Jiangsu Changdian, etc.

The top 30 global wafer foundries in 2015:

1. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC)

Headquarters: Taiwan

Main business: various wafer foundry.

2. GlobalFoundries

Headquarters: United States

Main business: wafer foundry for ARM, Broadcom, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, etc.

3. Samsung

Headquarters: South Korea

Major customers: Apple, Qualcomm, Xilinx, etc.

4. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC)

Headquarters: Shanghai

Main business: non-volatile memory, analog technology/power management, LCD driver IC, CMOS micro-electromechanical system.

5. Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC)

Headquarters: Taiwan

Main business: various wafer foundry.

6. Powerchip Semiconductor (PSC)

Headquarters: Taiwan

Main business: diversified wafer foundry including DRAM, C-RAM, M-RAM, Flash, CMOS image sensors, etc.

7. TowerJazz

Headquarters: United States

Main business: CMOS image sensors, non-volatile memory, RF CMOS, mixed signal circuits, power management, RF and other special wafer foundry.

8. World Advanced Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd. (VIS)

Headquarters: Taiwan

Main business: logic, mixed signal, analog, high voltage, embedded memory and other processes

9. Dongbu

Headquarters: South Korea

Main business: non-storage semiconductor pure wafer foundry.

10. MagnaChip

Headquarters: South Korea

Main business: display driver integrated circuits, CMOS image sensors and application solution processors, and wafer foundry.

11. Shanghai Huahong Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (HHNEC)

Headquarters: Shanghai

Main business: standard logic, embedded non-volatile memory, power management, power devices, RF, analog and mixed signal and other fields.

12. China Resources Shanghua Technology Co., Ltd. (CSMC)

Headquarters: Wuxi, Jiangsu, Beijing

Main products: CMOS/ANALOG, BICMOS, RF/Mixed-SignalCMOS, BCD, power devices, Memory and discrete devices.

Main customers: Wolfson Microelectronics

13. IBM

Headquarters: United States

Main customers: Huawei HiSilicon

14. Tianjin Zhonghuan Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (TJSemi)

Headquarters: Tianjin

Main business: R&D and production of semiconductor energy-saving industry and high-efficiency photovoltaic power stations.

15. Jilin Sino-Microelectronics Co., Ltd.

Headquarters: Jilin

Main business: Integrating power semiconductor device design and development, chip processing, packaging testing and product marketing, mainly producing power semiconductor devices and ICs.

Major customers: NXP, FAIRCHILD, VISHAY, PHILIPS, TOSHIBA

16. Shanghai Huali Microelectronics Co., Ltd. (HLMC)

Headquarters: Shanghai

Main business: logic and flash memory chips, CMOS, mixed analog and digital CMOS, RFCMOS, NORFlash.

Main customers: MTK

17. Wuhan Xinxin Integrated Circuit Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (XMC)

Headquarters: Wuhan

Main business: NOR flash memory, 2.5D and 3D integration and image sensors, etc.

18. Wuxi Hynix STMicroelectronics Co., Ltd.

Headquarters: South Korea

Main business: memory, consumer products, mobile, SOC and system IC.

19. Intel Semiconductor (Dalian) Co., Ltd.

Headquarters: United States

Main business: computer chipset products.

20. Shanghai Advanced Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (ASMC)

Headquarters: Shanghai

Main business: Bipolar, BiCMOS and HVMOS processing of analog semiconductors, and non-volatile storage memory technology for future smart ID cards.

21. Hejian Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. (HJTC)

Headquarters: Suzhou

Main business: Multi-project wafer (MPW) service, IP service, BOAC, Mini-library, etc.

22. Tianshui Tianguang Semiconductor Co., Ltd.

Headquarters: Gansu

Main business: production of bipolar digital integrated circuits and Schottky diodes, and provision of semiconductor product design, production, packaging, and testing, etc.

23. Shenzhen Founder Microelectronics Co., Ltd.

Headquarters: Shenzhen

Main business: power discrete devices (such as DMOS, IGBT, SBD and FRD) and power integrated circuits (such as BiCMOS, BCD and HVCMOS), etc.

24. Hangzhou Silan

Headquarters: Hangzhou

Main business: integrated circuit products using BIPOLAR, CMOS, BICMOS, VDMOS, BCD and other process technologies, and special discrete devices such as switching tubes, voltage regulator tubes, and Schottky diodes.

25. China Southern Technology Group

Headquarters: Zhuhai

Main business: The Group is mainly engaged in the production of high-tech integrated circuits including: single crystal silicon wafer manufacturing (SILICONWAFER), wafer processing (WAFERFOUNDRY), integrated circuit design (IC.DESIGN) and integrated circuit testing (TESTING) and packaging (PACKAGE).

26. ProMOS

Headquarters: Taiwan

Main business: R&D and production of memory series such as SDR, DDR, DDR2, DDR3, and MoblieDRAM.

27. Shanghai Lixin Integrated Circuit Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

Headquarters: Shanghai

Main business: It is a semiconductor enterprise wholly owned by the foreign-funded BCD Semiconductor Holding Company (BCD Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd.) in Shanghai Zizhu Science Park. BCD Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. is a manufacturing and design company for analog and mixed-signal solutions, providing products and wafer foundry services to customers all over the world. With the purpose of designing, developing, manufacturing and promoting its cost-effective and high-performance analog and mixed-analog integrated circuit products, its main products are distributed in the following five product markets: linear power management; switching power management; standard linear circuits; motor drives; audio and power amplifiers. In 2012, BCD was acquired by Diodes.

28. Shanghai Xinjin Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

Headquarters: Shanghai

Main business: A company jointly operated by BCD Semiconductor (Bermuda) Holdings and Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology. BCD was acquired by Diodes in 2012.

29. Shanghai Belling Co., Ltd.

Headquarters: Shanghai

Main business: Focus on integrated circuit (IC) design and application solution development, smart meter chips, power management, general analog products

30. Hangzhou Lion Microelectronics Co., Ltd. (Lion)

Headquarters: Hangzhou

Main business: Schottky chips for silicon-based solar energy

Main customers: ON Semiconductor

The status of several major domestic foundry industries in mainland China

UMC The Hejian plant in Suzhou, China has a monthly production capacity of about 60,000-70,000 8-inch wafers, and there is no plan to expand production in 2016. UMC will invest $1.3-1.4 billion in the construction of a 12-inch wafer plant in Xiamen in the five years starting from 2015 by investing in the Chinese IC design company Unigroup. The total investment scale is $6.2 billion, and construction has started in March 2015. It will initially enter the market with 40/55 nanometer processes, and will aim to move to 28 nanometers in the future. The Xiamen plant is expected to start production at the end of 2016 or the beginning of 2017, with an initial monthly production capacity of 10,000-20,000 pieces, and will be expanded in the future depending on the situation. UMC is currently the fastest company in setting up factories in China among wafer foundries. SMIC currently has three 8-inch wafer plants , located in Shanghai, Tianjin and Shenzhen. Among them, the 8-inch plants in Shanghai and Tianjin have a total monthly production capacity of about 130,000-140,000 pieces, and the Shenzhen plant is expected to start production in the fourth quarter of this year. In 2016, SMIC's total 8-inch wafer production capacity can reach 150,000-160,000 pieces per month. Its 12-inch factories are located in Shanghai and Beijing, with a total monthly production capacity of about 50,000 pieces. In 2016, the Beijing factory plans to increase its monthly production capacity by about 10,000 pieces. Whether SMIC can successfully break through the bottleneck of 28nm process in the future will be the focus of observation on whether its operations can be taken to a higher level. TSMC The monthly production capacity of its 8-inch wafer factory in Songjiang, Shanghai, China is about 100,000-110,000 pieces. It is currently evaluating the necessity of setting up a 12-inch wafer factory in China. Once the factory is determined, considering the progress of the factory construction and market demand, the initial entry point will be at least 28nm process. Samsung Currently, there is only one 12-inch wafer factory in China, which mainly produces NAND Flash products. Considering its wafer foundry capacity and main customer base, there should be no plan to build a wafer foundry in China within 1-2 years.

The price of 8-inch equivalent wafers from the four major wafer foundries

Inventory of small-size wafer factories /Source: Internet

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