Computer Manufacturing

While fifty years ago the number of computers in the world could be easily accounted among research centers and government institutions, today’s computer market is staggeringly large with diverse market segments among consumers and personal computers (PCs), commercial computing and information technology (IT) solutions, and industrial process control, manufacturing execution systems (MES) and automation systems.

Governmental computer demand has also exploded due to its application in census data gathering and management, intelligence, national security and effective management in the plethora of government agencies and functions found worldwide. Computer design has also featured miniaturization with handheld devices, embedded chips, processors, and intelligent functions on appliances, vehicles, fabrics and materials. Computer manufacturing represents the convergence of multiple supply chains and is designed to produce the various computer products bought today by their diverse consumers.

Modern computer manufacturing starts with the production of integrated circuits (ICs) and their electronic components from materials such as semiconductor wafers, epitaxial semiconductor and conductor films, and resistance wires and filaments. IC manufacturing is accomplished through layer deposition, etching, patterning, thermal processing, and ion implantation processes. Computer hard disc drives and memory storage devices have different manufacturing stages with various thin film deposition and scribing processes. Contemporary liquid crystal (LCD) and flat panel displays (FPD) follow thin film transistor (TFT) manufacturing processes or sequential steps of deposited semiconductor and metallic contact thin film layers onto a glass substrate. Various peripherals such as the computer case, keyboards, and other user interfaces have distinct manufacturing stages.