A semiconductor is a material that has an electrical conductivity due to flowing

electrons (as opposed to ionic conductivity) which is intermediate in magnitude between

that of a conductor and an insulator. This means roughly in the range 103 to
10−8 siemens per centimeter. Devices made from semiconductor materials are the
foundation of modern electronics, including radio, computers, telephones, and many
other devices. Semiconductor devices include the various types of transistor, solar cells,
many kinds of diodes including the light-emitting diode, the silicon controlled rectifier,
and digital and analog integrated circuits. Similarly, semiconductor solar photovoltaic
panels directly convert light energy into electrical energy. In a metallic conductor,
current is carried by the flow of electrons. In semiconductors, current is often
schematized as being carried either by the flow of electrons or by the flow of positively
charged "holes" in the electron structure of the material. Actually, however, in both
cases only electron movements are involved.

Common semiconducting materials are crystalline solids but amorphous and

liquid semiconductors are known. These include hydrogenated amorphous silicon and
mixtures of arsenic,selenium and tellurium in a variety of proportions. Such compounds
share with better known semiconductors intermediate conductivity and a rapid variation
of conductivity with temperature, as well as occasional negative resistance. Such
disordered materials lack the rigid crystalline structure of conventional semiconductors
such as silicon and are generally used in thin film structures, which are less demanding
for as concerns the electronic quality of the material and thus are relatively insensitive to
impurities and radiation damage. Organic semiconductors, that is, organic materials
with properties resembling conventional semiconductors, are also known.

Silicon is used to create most semiconductors commercially. Dozens of other

materials are used, including germanium, gallium arsenide, and silicon carbide. A pure
semiconductor is often called an “intrinsic” semiconductor. The electronic properties and
the conductivity of a semiconductor can be changed in a controlled manner by adding
very small quantities of other elements, called “dopants”, to the intrinsic material.
In crystalline silicon typically this is achieved by adding impurities
of boron or phosphorus to the melt and then allowing the melt to solidify into the crystal.
This process is called "doping".

` Semiconductor device fabrication is the process used to create the integrated

circuits (silicon chips) that are present in everyday electrical andelectronic devices. It is
a multiple-step sequence of photographic and chemical processing steps during which
electronic circuits are gradually created on a wafer made of
pure semiconducting material. Silicon is the most commonly used semiconductor
material today, along with various compound semiconductors.

The entire manufacturing process, from start to packaged chips ready for shipment,
takes six to eight weeks and is performed in highly specialized facilities referred to
as fabs.

Wafer Fabrication is a procedure composed of many repeated sequential

processes to produce complete electrical or photonic circuits. Examples include
production of radio frequency (RF) amplifiers, LEDs, optical computer components,
and CPUs for computers. Wafer fabrication is used to build components with the
necessary electrical structures.

The main process begins with electrical engineers {arokiyasamy} designing the
circuit and defining its functions, and specifying the signals, inputs, outputs
and voltages needed. These electrical circuit specifications are entered into electrical
circuit design software, such as SPICE, and then imported into circuit layout programs,
which are similar to ones used for computer aided design. This is necessary for the
layers to be defined for wafer mask production. The resolution of the circuits increases
rapidly with each step in design, as the scale of the circuits at the start of the design
process is already being measured in fractions of micrometers. Each step thus
increases circuit density for a given area.

The silicon wafers start out blank and pure. The circuits are built in layers
in clean rooms. First, photo-sensitive resistance patterns are photo-masked in
micrometer detail onto the wafers' surface. The wafers are then exposed to short-
wave ultraviolet light and the unexposed areas are thus etched away and cleaned.
Hot chemical vapors are deposited on to the desired zones and baked in high heat,
which permeate the vapors into the desired zones. In some cases, ions, such as O2+ or
O+, are implanted in precise patterns and at a specific depth by using RF-driven ion
sources.

These steps are often repeated many hundreds of times, depending on the
complexity of the desired circuit and its connections.

New processes to accomplish each of these steps with better resolution and in
improved ways emerge every year, with the result of constantly changing technology in
the wafer fabrication industry. New technologies result in denser packing of minuscule
surface features such as transistors and micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS).
This increased density continues the trend often cited as Moore's Law.

A fab is a common term for where these processes are accomplished. Often the
fab is owned by the company that sells the chips, such as AMD, Intel, Texas
Instruments, or Freescale. A foundry is a fab at which semiconductor chips or wafers
are fabricated to order for third party companies that sell the chip, such as fabs owned
by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), United Microelectronics
Corporation (UMC) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC).
>> Example of Clean Room <<
>> Example of Silicon Wafer <<
A cleanroom is an environment, typically used in manufacturing or scientific research, that has a
low level of environmental pollutants such as dust, airborne microbes, aerosol particles and chemical
vapors. More accurately, a cleanroom has a controlled level of contamination that is specified by the
number of particles per cubic meter at a specified particle size. To give perspective, the ambient air
outside in a typical urban environment contains 35,000,000 particles per cubic meter, 0.5 μm and
larger in diameter, corresponding to an ISO 9 cleanroom.

"Cleanroom - Room in which the concentration of airborne particles is controlled, and which is
constructed and used in a manner to minimize the introduction, generation and retention of particles
inside the room." Ref: International standard ISO14644-1 first edition 1999-05-01.

Cleanroom classifications
Cleanrooms are classified according to the number and size of particles permitted per volume of air.
Large numbers like "class 100" or "class 1000" refer to FED-STD-290E, and denote the number of
particles of size 0.5µm or larger permitted per cubic foot of air. The standard also allows
interpolation, so it is possible to describe e.g. "class 2000".

Small numbers refer to ISO 14644-1 standards, which specify the decimal logarithm of the number
of particles 0.1 µm or larger permitted per cubic metre of air. So, for example, an ISO class 5
cleanroom has at most 105 = 100,000 particles per m³.

Both FS 209E and ISO 14644-1 assume log-log relationships between particle size and particle
concentration. For that reason, there is no such thing as zero particle concentration. The table
locations without entries are non-applicable combinations of particle sizes and cleanliness classes,
and should not be read as zero.

Because 1 m³ is approximately 35 ft³, the two standards are mostly equivalent when measuring
0.5 µm particles, although the testing standards differ. Ordinary room air is approximately class
1,000,000 or ISO 9.