TIL: High-level overview of semiconductor manufacturing

The core of semiconductor manufacturing is creating p-n junctions by doping silicon. Dopants are sprayed onto specific areas of a silicon wafer. To control where the dopant lands, the areas that should not be sprayed are covered with a chemical. This process of applying and patterning the chemical is done using photolithography, which uses UV light, similar to photography.

Source: Covered in CS 598 APK Languages and Abstractions for High-Performance Scientific Computing at UIUC.