The chip industry’s little-known global assembly line

In 2018, when I was mayor of Mountain View, California, I had the opportunity to speak at the dedication of the monument marking the “Birthplace of Silicon Valley.” It is located in Mountain View’s Commerce Plaza, where Nobel Prize-winning physicist William Shockley founded the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, the first commercial manufacturer of semiconductor devices, in the mid-1950s.

Hundreds of retired engineers who attended the event understood the importance of silicon, the substrate on which most microelectronic “chips” are made. But while ‘Silicon Valley’ is known worldwide as a mecca for digital technology, a policy maker in the U.S. capital has noted one of the semiconductor industry’s greatest ‘contributions’ is its global assembly line. It doesn’t seem like

Semiconductors are made from ingots of pure silicon, the most common element found in sand. The ingots (solid blocks) are sliced ​​into thin wafers similar to CDs and DVDs, and tiny circuits are etched onto the wafers through a complex, chemical-intensive process known as wafer fabrication. Squeezing millions or billions of “transistors” into flakes or dies of silicon is the miracle of microelectronics that makes computers, smartphones, and other electronic devices possible.

Shockley’s business was never very profitable, but in 1957 eight top employees, including the recently deceased Gordon Moore, as we all know, “Traitor Eight” He left to found Fairchild Semiconductor, which also has a store in Mountain View. Early on, Fairchild invented the planar process, a technology that later enabled the manufacture of integrated circuits. Over time, Fairchild’s top his engineers, including some of the Tray Truth Eight, left to set up their own chip manufacturing company.

For decades, nearly every semiconductor producer in the Santa Clara Valley could trace its lineage to Fairchild. They were called “Fairchilds”. The valley became known as Silicon Valley, Electronic News published Silicon Valley Family Tree. Fairchild came up with another lesser-known innovation: the global assembly line. Beginning in 1963, Fairchild shipped manufactured wafers (or small dice cut from wafers) to Hong Kong for assembly into packages. After testing, the finished chips were shipped to the United States and other locations where they were incorporated into all forms of electronic devices. Since that day, nearly every company manufacturing wafers in the United States (or the Far East) has shipped wafers overseas for assembly and final testing. Most assembly plants were in the Far East, but there is one each in Mexico and Canada.

Therefore, most assembly workers Historically made up of Asian womenIt makes economic sense for manufacturers to ship products across the Pacific as production costs are reduced. While wafer manufacturing has historically relied primarily on low-paid women of color in the United States, Asian women have always been far less labor-intensive.

Intel currently owns and operates chip assembly plants in China, Malaysia, Vietnam and Costa Rica. Texas Instruments is doing the same in China, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Mexico. Micron Technology assembles in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. Advanced Micro Device utilizes partners and subcontractors based in China and Taiwan.

The only outlier is IBM. President Biden highlighted IBM’s assembly plant in Bromont, Quebec, Canada. In a speech to the Canadian Parliament on March 24. The company advertises itself as the largest semiconductor assembly plant in North America.I know there are no chip assembly plants in the US

Proponents of the CHIPS Act, which contains many valuable provisions, say it will strengthen the semiconductor supply chain and create jobs in the United States. There is no benefit to disrupting wafer fabrication in the US. Wafers or dies are sent to China or other Far East countries for assembly.

CHIPS funds cannot be used for fabs outside the United States, but semiconductors manufactured in CHIPS-supported fabs are not required to be assembled in the United States. was forced to set up a factory. Biden’s announcement to invest his $50 million in North American chip and printed circuit board assembly is as microscopic as the circuit.

We do not recommend taking everything home. There are advantages to maintaining partnerships between chip manufacturing and other manufacturing, China, Taiwan, and the United States. A belligerent tide that de-escalates and gives all three nations a strong incentive to rise.

Lenny Siegel served as mayor of Mountain View, California. In 2018 she served as executive director of the Public Environmental Monitoring Center.