More than 50 billion transistors are 10,000 times smaller than a human hair. They are made on floors that can be seven stories tall and run the length of four football fields.
The modern economy depends on the use of chips. Computers, phones, cars, appliances, and scores of other electronics are powered by them. The world's demand for them has gone up since the Pandemic, causing a global shortage.
The United States is becoming too dependent on chips made abroad and that is fueling inflation. More than 90 percent of the most advanced chips come from Taiwan, and the United States accounts for only 12 percent of global manufacturing capacity.
Intel, a Silicon Valley titan that is seeking to restore its longstanding lead in chip manufacturing technology, is making a $20 billion bet that it can help ease the chip shortfall. It is building two factories at its chip-making complex in Arizona that will take three years to complete, and recently announced plans for a potentially bigger expansion, with new sites in New Albany, Ohio, and Germany.
Why does it mean so much to make millions of these tiny components? Some answers can be found in a look inside Intel production plants.
Integrated circuits replaced bulky individual transistors in the late 1950s. Many of those tiny components are connected to each other on a piece of Silicon. The resulting chips store data, amplify radio signals and perform other operations.
Intel has been able to shrink transistors on its chips. Apple chose Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to make the chips for its latest phones because it could make even tinier components.
Such wins by a company based in Taiwan, an island that China claims as its own, add to signs of a growing technology gap that could put advances in computing, consumer devices and military hardware at risk from both China's ambitions and natural threats in Taiwan. It put a spotlight on Intel's efforts to regain the technology lead.
Technology does more each year because chip makers are packing more transistors onto each piece of Silicon. It is also the reason that fewer companies can afford to build chip factories.
In addition to paying for buildings and machinery, companies must spend a lot to develop the complex processing steps used to fabricate chips from plate-size Silicon wafers.
Enormous machines project designs for chips across each wafer and then deposit and etch away layers of materials to create their transistors and connect them. Up to 25 wafers at a time can be moved among those systems.
A wafer can take up to two months to process. TSMC has set the pace for output in recent years, with sites with four or more production lines. Each site can process more than 100,000 wafers a month according to Dan Hutcheson, vice chair of the market research firm TechInsights. He puts the capacity of Intel's two planned $10 billion facilities in Arizona at roughly 40,000 wafers a month.
Individual chips are sliced into the wafer. These are wrapped in plastic and tested to make sure they work.
It is more difficult to make transistors smaller, which has made that step a new battleground. Companies are stacking multiple chips or laying them side by side in a package, connecting them to act as a single piece ofSilicon.
Intel has developed a new product that uses new technology to bundle a remarkable 47 individual chips, including some made by TSMC and other companies as well those produced in Intel Fabs.
The average price for an Intel chip is hundreds to thousands of dollars. In March, Intel released its fastest processor for desktop computers at a starting price of $739. A piece of dust can ruin a person. To be a good place to live, you have to be clean and have complex systems to regulate temperature and humidity.
Fabs have to be impervious to vibration, which can cause costly equipment to malfunction. The clean rooms are built on huge concrete slabs.
The ability to move vast amounts of liquids and gases is critical. The top level of Intel's factories are about 70 feet tall and have giant fans to circulate air. There are thousands of pumps, transformers, power cabinets, utility pipes and chillers that connect to production machines below the clean room.
Fabs use a lot of water. Water is needed to clean wafers at many stages of the production process.
The local utility gets about 11 million gallons of water a day from the two sites. Arizona, which has cut water allocations to farmers, is a challenge for Intel's future expansion. Farming consumes more water than a chip plant.
According to Intel, the sites that rely on supplies from three rivers and a system of wells reclaimed about 80% of the freshwater they use through filters and ponds. The water is sent back to the city, which uses it for irrigation and other non-potable uses.
Intel hopes to help boost the water supply in Arizona and other states by working with environmental groups and others on projects that save and restore water for local communities.
Intel will need 5,000 skilled construction workers for three years to build its future factories.
They have a lot to do. Dan Doron, Intel's construction chief, said that Excavating the foundations is expected to remove 890,000 yards of dirt.
The company expects to pour more than 445,000 yards of concrete and use 100,000 tons of reinforcement steel for the foundations, which is more than in constructing the world's tallest building.
More than 100 trucks are needed to bring the pieces to assemble the cranes, Mr. Doron said. 55-ton chillers will be lifted by the cranes.
Patrick Gelsinger, who became Intel's chief executive a year ago, is lobbying Congress to provide grants for the construction of new facilities. To manage Intel's spending risk, he plans to emphasize the construction of shells that can be equipped with equipment to respond to market changes.
To address the chip shortage, Mr. Gelsinger will have to make good on his plan to produce chips designed by other companies. Products like phones and cars require components from many suppliers, as well as older chips, so a single company can only do so much. There is no country that can stand alone in this area. The chip industry will continue to rely on a complex global web of companies for raw materials, production equipment, design software, talent and specialized manufacturing despite the fact that boosting domestic manufacturing can reduce supply risks.
It was produced by Alana.
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