PH4418 Physics in Industry-

Semiconductor Industry
Part 1

SZU HUAT, GOH

About me
Szu Huat, Goh ([email protected])

B.Eng (Electrical and Computer Engineering)

National University of Singapore
2000-2004

PhD (Electrical and Computer Engineering)

National University of Singapore
2004-2008

Technology Development (Product Test and Diagnostic Engineering, Quality and Reliability Assurance
Dept)
GLOBALFOUNDRIES
2009-2022

Qualcomm (Product Yield and Diagnostic, Product and Test Engineering Dept)
GLOBALFOUNDRIES
2022-current
3
Chip Manufacturing in Singapore Ups and Downs

4
Impact of Covid-19

5
 Q2 2020

[Source: https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/PDF-126/Accenture-High-Tech-Covid-19-SEMICONDUCTOR-Final.pdf/] 6
2H 2020

7
Semiconductors Rebound

8
Forces That Drives Dramatic Rebound
• Work-from-home, stay-at-home spurred sales of tablets, laptops, home appliances (comes with
smart chips)
• Under-estimation of a post-Covid rebound in demand.
• Industry opinion: Huawei excessive stockpiling to ensure continuity and avoid crippling due to US.
sanctions. Chinese imports of chips of all kinds climbed to almost $380 billion in 2020 -- making up
almost a fifth of the country’s overall imports for the year.
• Industry opinion: chipmakers are prioritizing higher-volume and more lucrative consumer
electronics such as smartphones. Stockpiling race by giants (apple, huawei etc). Makers of cars
and gaming consoles: Nintendo Co., Sony and Microsoft Corp. have struggled to make enough
Switches, PlayStations and Xboxes
• Race towards Electric cars and 5G,

“Right now [automakers] are competing in the supply base with phones, and notebook computers,”

“Apple (AAPL) will sell more iPhones, in the first three months of this year than all the automakers
combined will sell vehicles in the whole year. So then if you're a semiconductor maker who's the more
important customer?” – yahoo finance tech , 201
9
Industrial Revolution

10
Chip Manufacturing in Singapore Upturn

11
12
Forces That Drives Dramatic Slump
• Sticky Inflation
• Lower demand
• Geopolitics risks (conflicts) and Sanctions
• Chinese economy facing challenges in post-Covid recovery

13
Outlook

14
Electronics Manufacturing Ecosystem
Market size Key players

$91T
Global Economy

$2.3T Electronics
(End Markets)
Thousands of companies

Fabless
$563B Semiconductor
Providers
(No manufacturing)
Hundreds of companies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzsRx0FO6Hg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nY557N3Noc
$86B
Manufacturers
(includes IDM foundry)

Note: All numbers refer to 2022.

Sources: Gartner, Bank of America, IBS, IMF, VLSI Research, IC Insights.
 Semiconductor Foundries by %Global Revenue

2023

[Source: https://twitter.com/AITechInvesting/status/1676607013734809607/] 17
 Top Semiconductor Companies
• By market cap
• By revenue
• By earnings
• By P/E ratio

Largest semiconductor companies by market cap (companiesmarketcap.com)

[Source: https://einvestingforbeginners.com/revenue-vs-profits-daah//] 18
High Growth Markets

19
Data Centers

20
 Cloud-based Vs Edge AI

[Source: https://www.rohm.com/news-detail?news-title=2022-11-29_news_ai&defaultGroupId=false] 21
 Edge AI

[Source: https://www.edge-ai-vision.com/companies/qualcomm/] 22
Generative AI

23
Evolution of Processing Units for AI Applications

CPU GPU DPU NPU (TPU)

System operations Accelerate graphics Data processing and Custom-built processors
rendering and training data-centric computing to accelerate neural
deep learning models, network computations
(TPU-tensor framework)
Serial processing Parallel processing Large-scale data- Large scale matrix
processing computations in deep
learning
Low latency High throughput (esp in Higher degrees of Highly specialized
graphics processing) versatility (diverse data
processing)

24
Outline
• Introduction to Semiconductor Industry and Manufacturing
• Introduction to Semiconductor Memories
• Introduction to Integrated Circuits Product Test and Yield Engineering
• Introduction to Failure Analysis
• Opportunities of AI / Machine/ Deep Learning in Semiconductor Industry

• Quiz ( 5th lesson): 25%

25
Learning Objectives
Introduction to Semiconductor Industry and Manufacturing
• Identify with some of the main terminologies
• Article literacy
• State the key manufacturing process modules
• Describe the basic principles behind each process module

Introduction to Semiconductor Memories

• State the different types of memories
• Describe the operations of different memory devices
• Emerging memories and evolutionary trends

26
Learning Objectives
Introduction to Integrated Circuits Product Test and Yield Engineering
• Describe the key elements of a product life cycle and their significance
• Explain the importance of a yield ramp-up
• Describe how yield improvement can be attained

Introduction to Failure Analysis

• Appreciate the purpose and significance of failure analysis in the manufacturing process and
product yield improvement
• Familiarize with techniques and tools
• Understand fundamental concepts

27
Learning Objectives
Opportunities of AI / Machine/ Deep Learning in Semiconductor Industry
• Introduction to Machine Learning Algorithms
• Understand the significance of machine learning workflow and deployment
• Introduction to applications in different functional domains
• Appreciate the challenges involved

28
Introduction to Semiconductor
Industry and Manufacturing
Integrated Device Manufacturers (IDMs), Fabless IDMs, and
Foundries

Wikipedia

29
Semiconductor Industry

• High tech industry

• design, fabrication, testing, assembly …
• Applications
• communications
• transportation
• aerospace
• automotive
• computers
• industry
• medical
• toys

30
Fabless Semiconductor Companies

31
Wafer Fabrication Companies (Foundry)

Foundry Integrated Design

(Pure-play) Manufacturers (IDM)

32
Why Pure-play foundries
• Characteristics of an IDM
• Research and development to
• Produce advanced products and processes
• Maintain competitiveness in tough markets
• Design integrated circuits (IC)
• Manufactures own microchips
• Develop manufacturing processes
• Tweak processes to achieve highest yields, higher profits

• Challenges
• Expensive to build and operate wafer fabrication plants (fabs) and test facilities
• Difficult to maintain full factory utilization
• Drain on finances during downtimes
• Reduction in force

33
Pure-play Foundries Roles
• IC manufacturing services
• Devise standard product design kit (PDK) for targeted technologies
• Customers provide product design and manufacturing specifications
• Industry developed standard design requirements and manufacturing processes
• Makes it easy for more than one foundry to produce same products (NOT so… Why?)
• Advanced automation
• Productivity
• reduces labor costs and misprocessing

• Challenges
• Many customers with multiple product lines. Sharing same production line.
• Complexity in process recipes
• High operating cost

34
 Top Semiconductor Companies

https://statisticsanddata.org/data/top-semiconductor-companies/

[Source: https://recordtrend.com/ic-insights/in-2021-the-top-15-revenue-of-global-semiconductor-manufacturers-in-q1-reached-us-
35
101-863-billion-with-a-year-on-year-growth-of-21-from-ic-insights//]
Complex Ecosystem of Global Semiconductor Companies (post-design)

OSAT-
Outsourced Semiconductor
Assembly and Test

SBT- Scan-Bake-Test

EDS- Electronic Die Sort

ATE- Automatic Test

Equipment

36
References
• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-05/chip-shortage-spirals-beyond-cars-to-
phones-and-game-consoles
• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-11/qualcomm-ceo-elect-says-huawei-ban-may-
help-with-chip-shortages
• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-11/biden-seeks-more-foreign-workers-while-
skirting-h-1b-visa-uproar
• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-11/europe-weighs-semiconductor-foundry-to-
fix-supply-chain-risk
• https://www.eetimes.com/singapore-government-may-end-fab-investments/
• https://www.straitstimes.com/business/economy/prospect-for-singapore-semiconductor-industry-
very-bright-says-chan-chun-sing
• https://www.straitstimes.com/business/economy/singapore-beats-expectations-attracts-152b-of-
investments-in-2019

37
Integrated Circuits (IC)
Origin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5paWn7bFg4

38
Semiconductor Materials

Si

Si Si Si

Si

39
From Silicon to Transistors to ICs
Pizza size Finger nail size

Each die represents a Each microprocessor contains

microprocessor. billions of transistors.
40
Key Components of Integrated
Circuits
Insulators, Conductors, and Semiconductors
Resistors, Capacitors, Diodes, and Transistors

41
 Resistivity
Insulators, Conductors, and Semiconductors

Insulators – materials that prevent the flow

of charge through them, thus exhibiting low
conductivity

Conductors – materials that allow easy flow

of electric current, hence exhibiting high
conductivity

Semiconductors – materials that possess

moderate conductivity

42
[Source: https://www.quora.com/How-do-semiconductors-differ-from-conductors-and-insulators]
 Energy Band Diagram

43
[Source: https://www.quora.com/How-do-semiconductors-differ-from-conductors-and-insulators]
Cross Section of an IC

Integrated Circuit

Insulator

Conductor

Semiconductor

44
 Fundamental Electronic Components
Diodes
Resistors

Transistors

Inductors Capacitors

45
[Source: https://www.elprocus.com/major-electronic-components]
Electronic components in PCB and IC
Schematic View

IC

IC

PCB

46
 Doped-silicon
Doped Silicon

Crystal Lattice

Si

Si Si Si

Si

47
[Source: https://gfycat.com/discover]
Periodic Table

3 outer 5 outer
shell shell
electrons electrons

48
PN Junction eg. phosphorous-doped

eg. boron-doped
Electrons are repelled

P N

• negatively • positively
charged charged
acceptors. donors.

• positively • negatively
charged charged free
Holes are ‘repelled’ electrons
holes

Width of depletion region => electric field (steady state), gives rise to resistance

49
PN Junction eg. phosphorous-doped

eg. boron-doped

Electrons are attracted over

P N

• negatively • positively
charged charged
acceptors. donors.

• positively • negatively
charged charged free
holes electrons

Width of depletion region reduces => resistance reduces

50
PN Junction eg. phosphorous-doped

eg. boron-doped

P N

• negatively • positively
charged charged
acceptors. donors.

• positively • negatively
charged charged free
holes electrons

Width of depletion region increases => resistance increases

51
PN Junction eg. phosphorous-doped

eg. boron-doped

P N

• negatively • positively
charged charged
acceptors. donors.

• positively • negatively
charged charged free
holes electrons

52
 Diode

• A diode allows current

flow in one direction
• Lower resistance,
higher current

53
 Bipolar Transistor

54
[Source: https://gfycat.com/discover]
 MOSFET Transistor

Gate
Source Drain

N-type N-type
P-type (lightly)

Question: What is the difference between NPN and PNP

MOSFET transistor?

55
[Source: https://gfycat.com/discover/mosfet-gifs]
 Resistors

56
[Source: E.Thompson, “Moore's law: the future of Si microelectronics”]
 Capacitor
Properties of an ideal capacitor are as follows:
• high quality factor (Q) / low losses
• high breakdown voltages
• capacitance being voltage-independent
• high area capacitance
• low parasitic capacitance
• low leakage currents

• Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) capacitor: formed by two

parallel metal layers and has a high k-dielectric between
them
• + high capacitance per unit area with lowest parasitic
(bottom plate and substrate)
• + quality factor is very high because both plates are
• Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (MOS) capacitor: formed made out of metal and the voltage dependency
by metal layers and/or high-conductivity polycrystalline is negligible
silicon plates • - more process steps required during fabrication. a
• + cheaper new step added to deposit the insulator between the
metal layers
• - Lower quality factor

[Source: https://person.zju.edu.cn/person/attachments/2018-06/01-1528032726-719553.pdf 57
MOSFET Transistor Size

X-section Thickness of Human Hair

Total Magnification = 1,000,000x Total Magnification = 1,000x

1 micron = 10,000 Å 1 micron (m) is 1/1000 of a

1 nanometer = 10 Å millimeter
1 Angstrom = .1 nm
(“” is a Greek symbol pronounced “mu”)
The relative size of the human hair is
approximately 4,000X larger than the
smallest feature size of a transistor.

NiSi

polysilicon 80 m
spacer spacer
22nm
Gate length
Gate oxide
thickness

58
Manufacturing Processes
Layering, Implanting, Patterning, Removal, Thermal
Diffusion, Photolithography, Etch, Implant, Metals/Films, CMP, Probe
Test

59
 Product Life Cycle

Modules
CMP Thin Film
Planarization Metals & dielectric

Etch Clean
To remove unwanted film,
Material removal
chemicals and particles

Litho Implant
Pattern photoresist Dopants

Diffusion
Oxidation

60
[Source: Wikipedia, “Integrated circuit design”]
 Overview Cross Section

Electrically-
decouple two
transistors

61
[Source: https://www.iue.tuwien.ac.at/phd/wittmann/node6.html]
FEOL Vs BEOL

Most critical, differentiates

technology
62
 Shallow Trench Isolation (STI) Processing
nitride
oxide

Si Substrate Pre-Clean Diffusion

removes particles/native pad ox
oxide/metal contamination
Thin Film
pad nitride – hard mask for the
subsequent steps

photo-
resist

Litho Etch Clean

Photoresist-defines the active etches away the pad removes the resist, unwanted
and isolation regions oxide/nitride pad oxide and nitride. Remove
particles

63
Shallow Trench Isolation (STI) Processing

Etch Clean Diffusion

deep isolation trench removes etch polymers + high-quality liner oxide
particles

removes particles/metal
contamination before furnace
processing

Thin Film CMP Etch

gap-fill: insulating oxide planarizes the STI oxide strips away the pad ox/pad
to provide electrical nitride layers
isolation between
transistors Question: Since we are removing both nitride and pad ox, why
can’t we just skip the pad oxide?
Ans: Pad oxide (buffer oxide) - Provides stress reduction for Si3N
64
 Printing Patterns - Photolithography

[Source: Senne Cornelis, “Forensic Lab-on-a-Chip DNA analysis” M. Quirk , “Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology”] 65
Types of Photoresist

Positive Resist:
– Becomes soluble in developer
after exposure to UV
– Pattern on wafer is similar to
that on mask

Negative Resist:
– Becomes insoluble after exposure to
UV light (“harden”)
– Pattern on wafer is opposite to that on
mask

66
 Photolithography Roadmap

𝜆 DUV
𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑅 = 𝑘
𝑁𝐴 DUV

where

k =f(lenses, resist contrast,

equipment control)

ASML is the only company with NGL tools on the market, with its EUV (extended ultraviolet) tool having sold four
units in 2016 at an average selling price of $110 million
67
[Source: https://www.design-reuse.com/articles/24046/in-design-physical-verification.html]
 Interpreting Articles

[Source: https://sst.semiconductor-digest.com/2018/05/ultra-violet-lithography-extending-the-patterning-roadmap-to-3nm/] 68
Breaking News

“…The Huawei patent filing, made in

November but only revealed to the world
this month, describes a way of using
ultraviolet light to etch a computer chip’s
inner workings into a piece of silicon.

Using so-called extreme ultraviolet

lithography (EUV) technology, transistors
can be created that are just nanometres
in size. The most powerful computer chips
contain millions of transistors and
advances in miniaturisation allow for the
creation of hugely powerful chips….”

69
 Double Patterning

A technique that decompose a single layout into two masks in order to ‘print’ smaller pitch features

25 nm
50nm

70
[Source: https://semiengineering.com/single-vs-multi-patterning-euv/]
 Types of Multi-Patterning

Litho, Etch, Litho, Etch (LELE) Litho, Freeze, Litho, Etch (LFLE)

71
[Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5uoklMx63I]
 Types of Multi-Patterning

Self Aligned Double Patterning

72
[Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5uoklMx63I]
 Semiconductor Total Market Cap: >3 Trillion

73
[Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bioUfCEXwe4]
 Diffusion

Growing SiO2
[Source: Nilofar Asim, “Research and Development Aspects on Chemical Preparation Techniques of
74
Photoanodes for Dye Sensitized Solar Cells”]
Diffusion implantation
• Gas containing dopant is introduced in the quartz tube
• typically 900 to 1100 °C, dopants diffuse into the exposed surface both vertically and horizontally
• final dopant concentration is the greatest at the surface and decreases in a gaussian profile deeper in the
material.

75
 Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP)
• Chemical: Chemical Reaction on wafer
surface material.
• Mechanical: Mechanical Polishing with
slurry particles.
• Purpose : Wafer carrier
• To achieve optimized global (wafer level)
and local (structure level) planarity which Slurry
enable device miniaturization.
• Higher margin for lithography Pattern Pad
Pad conditioner
definition resolution.
• Minimize additive topology effect
between layers.

76
 Significance of Planarization

77
[Source: Francois Batllo, “Chemical mechanical planarization for high precision optics”]
 Etch

• Etches in all directions • Etches in one direction

• Wet etch • Dry plasma etch

Acid
Resist Resist

Film Film
Substrate Substrate

Isotropic Etch Anisotropic Etch

78
[Source: http://www.rfglobalsolutions.co.uk/rf-in-the-semiconductor-industry/dqr-rie-mech/]
 Etch

Before Etch After Etch Profile

Photoresist
Selective etching with mask Film to be Protected
photoresist mask Resist etched Resist film
Poly Poly

Anisotropic etch (with

no photoresist mask) Oxide
Oxide
Poly Poly spacer

79
[Source: http://www.rfglobalsolutions.co.uk/rf-in-the-semiconductor-industry/dqr-rie-mech/]
 Clean
• In general
• Chemical : chemical mixtures to remove unwanted films and clean the surface of the wafer
• Dry clean: carried out in gas phase. Removes heavy transition and alkali metals
• Deionized water rinse (DI Rinse): remove chemicals and particles
• Drying: Spin dry the wafer completely without any trace of impurity on the wafer surface.

80
[Source: https://www.slideshare.net/AbbasRastegar/rastegar-sst-webcast-v8]
Well processing

Diffusion Lithography Implantation

Oxidation - protect Defines well region for Ion implantation
substrate from implant implantation
damage and prevent
channeling of implant
species

Implant screen (sacrificial) oxide - reduce implant channeling and

damage. Assists creation of shallow junctions

Etch/ Clean
Unwanted resist and
particles removal

81
Transistor gate processing

Etch Diffusion Lithography

Removes sacrificial oxide Transistor oxide growth Defines thin gate oxide
transistor region
Note: I/O thick gate oxide

Gate oxide - dielectric

Etch Etch/ Clean Diffusion

Removes thick gate Unwanted resist and Thin gate oxide growth
oxide particles removal

82
Transistor gate processing

Thin Film Lithography Etch

Polysilicon deposition Define gate region Defines thin gate oxide
transistor region

Etch/Clean Diffusion
Resist removal/ polymer poly-re-oxidation – forms
spacer oxide – used during implant of
and metal contaminants a thin silicon oxide layer dopant into the source and drain
on the poly gate regions

83
 Implantation

Doping profile
• Nuclear collisions during the high
energy implantation cause the
displacement of substrate atoms,
leading to material defects
• some unfortunate side effects eg.
lattice damage.
• resolved by applying a subsequent
annealing step, in which the wafer is
heated to around 1000°C for 15 to 30
minutes, and then allowed to cool
slowly

84
[Source: Matthias Hierlemann, “Implantation process in semiconductor fabrication”]
Thin Film Deposition
• Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) –
physical methods are used to produce the
constituent atoms which pass through a low-
pressure gas phase and then condense on the
substrate
• Evaporation – It is nothing but heating of
a solid or molten source until it vaporizes.
• Sputtering – Bombarding a solid source
with energetic ions formed in a plasma is
called sputter deposition.
• Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) –
reactant gases are introduced into the deposition
chamber, and chemical reactions between the
reactant gases on the substrate surface are used
to produce the film
• APCVD
• LPCVD
• PECVD
waveguides: a review of fabrication techniques”]

85
Sputter Deposition

• Ions are accelerated into target

• surface atoms are sputtered off the target
• sputtered atoms “flow” across the chamber to where
they are deposited

86
Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD)
Films grown:
• Single-crystalline thin films
• Polycrystalline thin films
• Amorphous thin films
• Semiconductors (IV, III-V, II-VI), metals, dielectric,
superconductors

Transport of Absorption on Adatoms, atom Di-sorption of bi-

precursor surface Chemical reaction
agglomeration products

Type of CVD APCVD SACVD LPCVD PECVD HDPCVD

Pressure atm < 600torr <2torr 5 to 20 torr < 5mtorr

87
 PECVD SiO2 Vs Growth oxide

• "grown" oxide not CVD can be an excellent dielectric (Insulating) thin film
• hence, normally as used for gate oxide High temp oxide
• Requires high temperature 800 and 1200 °C

• reaction of a vapor-phase substance with oxygen or oxidant (CO2, N2O,

NO, O3), resulting in a solid film (oxide)
• CVD oxide invariably has lower quality than thermal oxide, but thermal
oxidation can only be used in the earliest stages of IC manufacturing

SiH4 + O2 → SiO2 + 2 H2 300 and 500 °C

SiCl2H2 + 2 N2O → SiO2 + 2 N2 + 2 HCl around 900 °C Low temp oxide

Si(OC2H5)4 → SiO2 + byproducts 650 and 750 °C

88
[Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_vapor_deposition]
Source/Drain Processing

Lithography Implant Etch/ Clean

LDD – Lightly doped

Diffusion Etch Etch

Spacer creation Polymer removal

Lithography Implant Etch/ Clean

High dose Resist and polymer removal

89
Salicide Processing

Thin Film Diffusion Lithography

Salicide block deposition. Annealing to activate Expose un-salicided
Oxide-nitride dopants region

Etch Etch/ Clean Thin Film

Removes oxide-nitride in Resist and particles Salicide deposition
non- salicided regions removal
Pre-salicide clean

Diffusion Etch/ Clean Diffusion

Annealing converts Co to removes unreacted Co converts CoSi to low-
high-resistive CoSi phase resistance CoSi2

90
 Annealing

Residual
Anneal defects

Damaged Si lattice during implant Si lattice after Annealing

Main purpose
• relieve stress in silicon
• Activate (salicidation) or diffuse dopants
• densify deposited or grown films
• repair implant damage

91
[Source: Controlled defect creation and removal in graphene and MoS2 monolayers, DW Li , 2017]
Annealing • Faster
• Reduced thermal budget
• Better dopant movement
control

92
Comparison between Furnace and Rapid Thermal Process

93
Contact processing

94
Tungsten contact/ first metallization

Intermetal
dielectric
(IMD)

95
Backend Metalization

96
Summary of Integrated Circuits Processing
Category Integration Circuit Component
STI Electrical isolation between transistors
Well Provide the appropriate PN junction for channel
doping of NMOS/PMOS
Gate creates the transistor gate-oxide and gate
Front-End (FE)
LDD/spacer/So Provides transistor gate doping, fabrication of
urce-drain lightly-soped drain and source-drain
Salicide Provides good ohmic contact between transistor
contacts
Contact Provides electrical connection between transistor
terminals and first metal layer
Via/Metal Creates the dense network of metal
Back-End (BE) interconnection
Passivation Provides a protection layer so that die is not
exposed to environmental contamination and
packaging stress

97
Device Technology Trend

• Lower leakage
• Higher driving current
• Lower voltage operability
• Better mismatch
• Higher intrinsic gain

98
 3D illustration of a Finfet

Without stressor With stressor

[Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knkmlG6ItYo] 99
FinFet Structural Analysis

100
 An example of an Abnormal Fin

Gate
spacer

Epi-S/D
GOX

STI
Si Fin

substrate

[Source: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mee.2016.06.002] 101

Advanced Technology Manufacturer

102
 State-of-the Art HPC chips

[Source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-apples-new-m3-silicon-compares-to-the-m1-and-m2-chips-from-gpu-103
cores-to-transistors/]
 State-of-the Art HPC chips

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https://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=Cnow__2lkZ0

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Outlook on Semiconductor Manufacturing in US

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Semiconductor Annual Growth: Boom & Bust a Norm
Thank you