[mcshicks]

Yes that's true, but there's actually even more like packaging, testing, etc. I took a free online course from Stanford called "nanomanufacturing" but it really was mostly about about chip manufacturing, packaging etc. Even though I worked in the semiconductor industry for 12 years (mostly bench testing preproduction ASICS) I still found it really useful. Not sure if you can still view the archives here if you sign up for an account (I can but I took the class)

https://lagunita.stanford.edu/courses/Engineering/Nano/Summe...

No substitute for learning the physics, but at least it kind of gives you some idea of what's involved. In addition to all the crazy technology involved in fabricating the chips, the packaging technology has gotten really sophisticated. It can be very confusing about what's the difference BGA, WLCSP, stacked dies, etc. Anyway the course covered a lot different types of processing with examples.

[ChuckMcM]

That is awesome. The link doesn't work for me but I didn't really expect it to. My first job in the Bay Area was working for Intel and about 6 months in I was offered some 'counterfeit' or grey market Intel DRAM chips. (as a microcomputer enthusiast, not as an Intel employee) I took the offer to security, who gave me the cash to buy a tube of them, which I did, and they disassembled them to figure out where in the packaging pipeline they had gone missing.

Sadly I never got to hear the full story on how they came to be but I did get a good look at the packaging pipeline that Intel used at the time. It was extensive even then with half a dozen entities providing steps in the path.