Long before the chip shortage, I had undertaken to try to tell the story of a grain of silicon, all the way from the quarry through to the semiconductor foundry and assembly plant where it would become part of a smartphone. I soon realised that, much as with Read’s pencil, no single person, even those working on the supply chain itself, could fully explain to me the processes—even the very simplified processes—that took place at each stage along this journey. Those working at foundries understood plenty about photolithography and chemical abrasion, but little about how the ultra-pure silicon
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