Semiconductors are parts used as the brains of various electronic devices, from electric toothbrushes to game consoles and automobiles. Global semiconductor demand continues to grow year by year, and the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics WSTS has predicted that the semiconductor market will grow from 6.8% in 2020 to 28.5% in 2022.
There are hundreds of semiconductor design companies around the world, but fewer than 20 actually produce semiconductors worldwide. With the enormous cost of building semiconductor manufacturing plants and the months-long manufacturing process, supply hardly keeps up with demand. Global Foundries, one of them, is a major US foundry that boasts the world’s third largest size after TSMC and Samsung Electronics.
In general, the operation rate of semiconductor manufacturing plant machines is 90%, excluding maintenance time. There are 700 processing steps in semiconductor manufacturing, and it is said that the machine that transports wafers is rarely stopped during operation, such as moving for three months.
The most important and expensive machine in the factory is the exposure lithography system, which costs $100 million. An official from the GlobalFoundry plant says that if a machine breaks down, it is important to repair it quickly. Because the faster the machine is repaired, the more chips the factory can manufacture. In 2020, when GlobalFoundry’s lithography machine broke down, a technician from a lithography system manufacturer who was dispatched could not come due to concerns about COVID-19 infection, and a factory technician wearing an AR headset performed repairs under the guidance of himself.
However, it is most effective to build a new factory to dramatically increase production. According to SEMI, the global semiconductor industry association, construction of 29 new factories will begin by 2022. 8 each in China and Taiwan, 6 in the US, 3 in Europe and the Middle East, and 2 in Korea and Japan.
The United States produced a third of the world’s semiconductors in the early 1990s, but semiconductor companies demanded cheaper labor and Korea, Taiwan, and China began to pay huge subsidies for semiconductor production, and the production base gradually moved to Asia. As of 2021, three-quarters of the world’s semiconductors are produced in Asia, and most of the large-scale factories are headquartered in Taiwan.
The U.S. government has approved a $52 billion subsidy for the construction and research of semiconductor manufacturing plants that will bolster domestic production of semiconductors and avoid overreliance on Asia for semiconductor manufacturing from an economic and defense perspective. GlobalFoundries said it plans to increase production at its U.S. factories by more than 25% if it receives some government subsidies.
However, a GlobalFoundry machine repair system manager says that one of the most difficult tasks is securing people with technical skills. GlobalFoundry is said to provide two years of vocational training to employees without degrees and is working with local colleges to help design curriculums related to chips. Related information can be found here.