General info

This course runs from 08:30 to approximately 17:30, and may occasionally continue until 18:00.

The course is specifically designed as a comprehensive introduction to integrated circuits, or chips, for people working in non-technical areas of the semiconductor industry, such as management, marketing and sales, logistics, IT, software development, and related disciplines. These professionals are increasingly confronted with semiconductor terminology and abbreviations but often lack the technical background needed to fully understand discussions with colleagues, customers, and suppliers. A basic understanding of integrated circuits, their operation, capabilities, and limitations helps participants communicate more effectively with technical specialists and place their own role within a broader semiconductor context.

The main objectives of the course are to familiarize participants with commonly used semiconductor terminology, provide a basic understanding of the complete chip development process, improve communication with technical colleagues, suppliers, and customers, and broaden the participant’s overall perspective on the semiconductor industry.

The course begins with an introduction to basic terminology, the semiconductor market, and the evolution of electronics from vacuum tubes and transistors to modern integrated circuits. It also introduces Moore’s law and the enormous increase in chip complexity over the past five decades.

The section What is a Chip? explains the concepts of wafers and chips and uses simple analogies, such as comparing a chip floorplan with a city plan. Basic transistor operation, the meaning of analog and digital, and the main application areas of chips are also discussed, including consumer electronics, communications, identification, wireless systems, memories, and interfaces.

The course then follows the complete chip development cycle, covering simple transistors and circuits, layout and fabrication layers, substrates and wafers, libraries and IP cores, chip design and production, testing, yield, and packaging.

Finally, the course looks at future developments, including increasing complexity, time-to-market, design and manufacturing costs, lithography costs, and the main trends and limitations that will influence future semiconductor technologies.

The course includes a copy of the most recent edition of the book Bits on Chips.