Could someone help contextualize what parts of this manufacturing process are considered the most important and closely guarded trade secrets? I'd love to hear some slightly more concrete examples.
How easily could another company replicate this process if they knew all the key details? It was my understanding that access to photolithography machines was one of the major obstacles in replicating chip manufacturing processes.
> Could someone help contextualize what parts of this manufacturing process are considered the most important and closely guarded trade secrets?
There's way too many fine details to even begin to list. Modern chip fabbing is the closest thing on the planet to actual dark magic, and the difficulty only rises exponentially with every new fabrication node. Literally any part of this could be considered a "trade secret" if it's not already described publicly as part of patents, academic research or both.
How easily could another company replicate this process if they knew all the key details? It was my understanding that access to photolithography machines was one of the major obstacles in replicating chip manufacturing processes.