What's it like to work on computer chips?
Almost everything electronic, from phones to cars to hospital machines, runs on computer chips that someone had to design, build and test. These pages explain the work in plain words and point to real places to learn more. You do not need an account to read any of it.
What the chip industry makes
The chip industry makes computer chips. A chip is a small, flat piece of silicon, a material made from sand, with millions or even billions of tiny switches built into it. Each switch turns on or off very fast. Together, the switches can store words and pictures, do sums, and follow instructions.
Chips are inside nearly everything that uses electricity and does something clever: phones, laptops, cars, washing machines, hospital scanners and the computers that run the internet. A car can hold hundreds of chips.
Making a chip takes many kinds of work. People design it, build it in a factory called a fab, test it, and research better ways to make the next one. Other people sell chips and help customers use them. These pages cover four of those kinds of work.
It matters because when chips are short, factories that make cars, phones and medical machines slow down or stop. Countries now want more chips made close to home, so more people are needed to do this work.
Words used on these pages
- Chip
- A small piece of silicon with millions or billions of tiny switches that store and work on information.
- Silicon
- A material made from sand. Most chips are built on it.
- Wafer
- A thin, round slice of silicon. Hundreds of chips are built on one wafer, then cut apart.
- Fab
- Short for fabrication plant: the very clean factory where chips are built.
- Simulation
- A computer test that acts out how something will behave before it is made.
- Technician
- A person who runs, checks and fixes equipment, often trained at a college rather than a university.
- Degree
- A qualification from a university, usually three or four years of study.
- Two-year college course
- A shorter qualification from a college, such as an associate's degree in the US.
- Postgraduate degree
- A further degree after the first one, such as a master's or a PhD.
- PhD
- A research degree that takes several years. You find out something new and write it up.
Four kinds of work
Drawing the plan for a computer chip before it is ever built.
Chip ManufacturingBuilding the chip, in a factory cleaner than a hospital operating room.
Testing & QualityMaking sure every chip works before it ships.
ResearchInventing the next kind of chip, years before it reaches a factory.
Which subjects lead where
The school subjects that help most for each kind of work, and whether there is a way in without a university degree.
| Kind of work | School subjects | No degree needed | University degree | Postgraduate degree |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chip Design | Maths, Physics, Computing | Rare | Yes | Yes, narrow |
| Chip Manufacturing | Maths, Chemistry, Physics, Design and technology | Yes, narrow | Yes | Not usual |
| Testing & Quality | Maths, Physics, Computing, Statistics, if your school offers it | Yes | Yes | Not usual |
| Research | Maths, Physics, Chemistry | Not usual | Yes, narrow | Yes, narrow |
"Narrow" means open to fewer people; each pathway page says why. No route on these pages guarantees a job. They show the usual ways people get in, and where a way in is narrow, they say so.
Teaching a class? Lesson outline, discussion questions and a programme list you can download.
What these pages do not cover yet
- Regions. The evidence for each route comes from the United States. Routes, school subjects and qualifications differ in India, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, China, Europe and elsewhere. What would close it: A route table for each region, each one checked against that region's own official careers source.
- Regions. Next steps name programmes that are online or US based. We do not yet list local colleges or courses near chip factories outside the US. What would close it: Adding local programmes to our programme register, with the region each one serves.
- Languages. These pages are in English only. What would close it: Translations checked by a person who speaks the language, starting with the languages of the largest chip-making regions.
- Kinds of work. Four kinds of work are covered. Packaging (putting the chip in its protective case), the software tools used to design chips, the machines that build chips, and sales and customer support are not. What would close it: A pathway page for each, written and checked the same way as these four.
- Ways in. Apprenticeships, military training and routes for people with disabilities are not described. What would close it: A route entry for each, with an official source for who it is open to.
- Ways in. We do not say how much each job pays or how many jobs there are in a given place. What would close it: Pay and job figures from an official source for each region, with the date they were measured.
Written for about the reading level of a 14 year old. If a word is not clear, it should be in the list of words above; if it is not, that is our mistake.