Why GPU Prices Keep Rising: Dive Into Manufacturing, Demand and Market Forces
Manufacturing Process
The process of manufacturing GPU's requires several stages that effect their final cost.
Some of stages are:
Design
Design is a very important stage of GPU manufacturing because the first step will define GPU's overall architecture. This stage involves designing the chips layout, memory configuration, how many cores it will have and overall interaction with other components and power consumption.
In the main part of architecture is the Core Design. GPU's Core is the place where hundreds and even thousands small processing cores are and they work in parallel to execute tasks smoothly.(For context AMD has Stream Processors and NVIDIA has CUDA Cores)
Then we got other components. These components are support for different memory types, memory control, cache, clock speed, execution units and so much other requirements to ensure the GPU can preform various tasks.
Wafer Production
After all the required architecture we get to Wafer production. Wafer production is a critical stage and at this stage is where bottlenecks begin to happen, but first what is Wafer production? Wafer production is a stage in GPU manufacturing where raw silicon is transformed into Wafer, now Wafer is a thin slice of semiconductor material used for chips production for GPU's and they are designed to handle complex calculation, graphics rendering and so on, and reason why this is a critical stage is this effects the whole GPU's performance along side needing high precision to ensure its quality and functionality.
Stages of Wafer production are:
I will explain these stages of Wafer production shortly and simple because it can get complex.
Crystal growth is when high purity silicon is melted and turned into ingots. This process has multiple methods, but most common is Czochralski method is used to obtain single crystals(also called monocrystals). How dose the method work? So high purity silicon is melted in a crucible (mostly made out of quartz or ceramic) at a carefully controlled temperature of 1,410 celsius, therefor to ensure silicon remains in liquid state. Then an seed crystal is dipped into molten silicon, the controlled temperature is just above melting point of silicon which allows for effective crystallization then the seed crystal is slowly pulled upwards and rotated, this allows the silicon atoms from the molten silicon to attach to the seed crystal. The process continues until the desired size of the silicon ingot (Around 10-15cm in width and length of 1 meter or more).
After the cooling of silicon ingot Wafer slicing begins, there are a couple of techniques of slicing the silicon ingot but most common are:
Polishing is a step that enhances the surface quality of a sliced wafer. Purpose is to get a surface smoothness and improve yield. For polishing they can use CMP(Chemical Mechanical Polishing) technique or Lapping technique. CMP uses both chemical etching and mechanical abrasion to achieve high quality surface polishing, Lapping uses abrasive materials to grind the surface of Wafer, now its less common because it can cause scratches on the wafer.
Doping is a step where electrical properties of a wafer are modified, this allows them to conduct electricity in controlled manner. This is essential for making p-type and n-type semiconductors.
How doping work they add specific impurities into the silicon crystal structure to alter its electrical conductivity.
Now what are p-types and n-types of doping.
P-type is a substance that makes holes/missing electrons in a semiconductor allowing it to conduct electricity, P-type uses elements from Group III from the periodic table, mostly used are Boron(B) and Gallium(Ga)
N-type are materials that are added to the semiconductor to increase number of free electrons that enhance electrical conductivity, N-type uses elements from Group V from the periodic table, mostly used are Phosphorus(P) and Arsenic(As)
Doping methods are:
Gas diffusion is done in a diffusion furnace where dopants in gas state are passed over wafer at high temp and this allows the dopant to penetrate the silicon material.
Ion implantation is done by implanting ionized dopants into the wafer.
Liquid phase is done by a liquid dopants are applied to the wafer's surface
Photolithography
Photolithography is used to transfer patterns on the silicon wafer, this allows creation of integrated circuits on wafer's sirface. This is essential for modern electronics.
Steps of Photolithography:
Now explanation of each step.
Wafer preparation is simple, they surface of wafer is cleaned to remove impurities that may interfere.
Exposure is when light is used to transfer pattern from photomask onto the wafer.(Photomask is a templates that has transparent ares that allow light to pass through)
Development happens after exposure the wafer is treated with a solution that washes away exposed or unexposed areas of photoresist revealing the pattern.
Etching is a process that removes material from the wafer surface in areas that aren't protected by photoresist that remains.
Photoresist removal after etching the photoresistis removed leaving the final pattern on wafer
Packaging
This is the final stage of manufacturing where the chips are enclosed and ready to integrate into electronic devices. There are several types of packaging but most common are:
Here is quick explanation of each type of packaging.
DIP features two rows of pins on both sides of the chip making it best for through hole mounting.
SMD has the components soldered directly onto the surface of the circuit board.
BGA packages use small solder balls that are in a grid pattern on the underside of the chip to make connections.
CoB the bare chip is mounted directly on the circuit board.
Testing
Testing are done to ensure the functionality, reliability and quality of the finished chip. This ensures that the chip operates as expected and that it meets all design specifications and has no defects that can cause it to fail.
Demand and Market Forces
The rise in GPU prices depends on demand and market forces, understanding this can provide info about the ongoing situation.
Demand Factors
Market Forces
Market forces are more of export related problems then actual demand factors, here are some main market problems.
Supply Chain Issues has led to global supply chains shortages(which also has effect on pushing prices up) and delays in semiconductor production have affected availability.
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