Semiconductor industry and market

Which appropriately describes investment in advanced semiconductor fabs?

  1. AA cutting-edge fab can be built with a small investment (a few hundred million yen)
  2. BManufacturing equipment such as exposure tools is expensive, and building an advanced fab can require investment on the scale of trillions of yen
  3. CProduction relies mainly on manual labor with almost no manufacturing equipment
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Answer: B. Manufacturing equipment such as exposure tools is expensive, and building an advanced fab can require investment on the scale of trillions of yen

Manufacturing equipment is very expensive; a single advanced exposure tool can cost tens of billions of yen or more. Building an advanced fab can therefore require investment on the scale of trillions of yen, which has led to manufacturing being concentrated at foundries and to subsidy policies by governments.

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More Semiconductor industry and market questions

  1. What is an LSI called that integrates functions a system needs, such as a CPU, GPU, memory controller and communications, on a single chip?
  2. What is an LSI called that is custom-designed for a specific application or customer?
  3. Which category of semiconductor products, such as diodes, single transistors and power MOSFETs, performs a single function on its own?
  4. Which correctly distinguishes the 'front end' and 'back end' of semiconductor manufacturing?
  5. What is the direction called that raises value not only by increasing integration through scaling but also by combining diverse functions such as sensors, power, analog and advanced packaging?