How does a grain of sand become the tech brain in your phone? Here is a breakdown of the incredible global supply chain behind semiconductors. 🌍✨
#TechExplained #economics #economy #semiconductors #hitech
#TechExplained #economics #economy #semiconductors #hitech
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00:00Every time you tap your smartphone, you're relying on a tiny but powerful invention.
00:04The semiconductor.
00:06As a fundamental building block of microchips, the brains behind modern technology,
00:11it conducts electricity, but only in certain conditions.
00:15So it acts like a traffic light, controlling currents within computers.
00:19A semiconductor begins life as a grain of quartz sand
00:23that's mined in the United States or Australia.
00:26It's then purified into silicon crystals.
00:29A process carried out in places like Germany or Japan.
00:32From there, the silicon crystals go to precision manufacturing factories
00:36in South Korea, Japan, and the U.S.
00:39to be sliced into thin wafers.
00:41Companies like NVIDIA, Huawei, and TSMC lead the globe in chip designs.
00:46The designs are sent to fabrication plants, or fabs, across Asia and America.
00:51These facilities use highly specialized machines
00:54to print the chips' intricate layers and circuits onto the wafers.
00:57For many chips, the next port of call is China,
01:00where they're assembled, tested, and packaged,
01:03ensuring they're ready for integration.
01:06But that's just the beginning of a new supply chain,
01:09whether it's for a car, a mobile phone, a medical scanner,
01:12an airplane, or even a space rocket.