What books are recommended to learn the semiconductor industry?

Define "learn semiconductors industry"...

I mean, you might say "I want to learn medicine" and people would take that many ways.

I studied EECE (electrical and computer engineering) in my BS, then Physics, and my Ph.D. is in Computer Engineering, minor in CS, but very specifically on VLSI and chip-making in the graduate school. I am saying this just to note: When you say "semiconductors industry" my immediate thought is you want to learn VLSI.

So, do you want to learn VLSI? Half the VLSI population will direct you to Westes book: https://www.pearson.com/us/higher-education/program/Weste-CM... and the other half will direct you to Jan Rabaeys book: http://bwrcs.eecs.berkeley.edu/Classes/IcBook/ I read both. Rabaey is a great writer and I prefer his book quite a bit.

Do you want to learn the Architecture of CPUs? The bible is Hennessey and Patterson: https://www.elsevier.com/books/computer-architecture/henness... However, there are several versions (not editions) so be aware of RISC vs ARM and also one is HUGE and one is a subset of the main one (for example, this book: Computer Organization and Design, David A. Patterson, and John L. Hennessy is a subset of the "A quantitative approach" I linked to at elsiver).

I would first figure out or define if you want to learn semiconductors by themselves (the first two books I referenced, which will also teach you CMOS design and high speed digital circuits) or end to end architecture of CPUs (Hennessy and Patterson), or something else (e.g. there is also the manufacturing of chips, which Weste and Rabaey cover to some degree, but there are even more serious books on, for example Rabeays book on 3D ICs).

Hard to answer this question well without a little bit of additional context. I'm very focused on the software side of things, so I am mostly familiar with resources that tackle how software interacts with various platforms and architectures.

I can recommend some resources in that vein (maybe they'll be useful if you/the reader have a software background):

The most frequently recommended book from a software perspective is "Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective" (http://csapp.cs.cmu.edu/3e/home.html).

For a nice gentle intro, you can also read "The Elements of Computing Systems" (https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/elements-computing-systems) that accompanies a course called "Nand2Tetris".

George Hotz also compiled a list of topics to cover to learn the computing stack from bottom-to-top (https://github.com/geohot/fromthetransistor).

These resources are mostly software-oriented, so they wouldn't give you much insight into modern chip fabrication, but if you're coming from a software background, may prove to be useful for building on what you already know.

You could try checking this out. Seems like a good starting point. The videos are very detailed. https://youtube.com/c/Asianometry

ITRS roadmaps were a very interesting read up to 2017 when they were stopped: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Technology_Roa...

I haven't looked at the IRDS roadmaps, but they're free with some registration to the IEEE.

This is a rare and nice overview book on the VLSI design by Liming Xiu:

VLSI Circuit Design Methodology Demystified: A Conceptual Taxonomy:

https://www.wiley.com/en-us/VLSI+Circuit+Design+Methodology+...

"The history of semiconductor engineering" was a great read.

I know you asked for books, but this Knowledge Project podcast is too good to leave out if you haven't heard it.

https://fs.blog/knowledge-project-podcast/the-ultimate-barga...

1) Microprocessor Design: A Practical Guide from Design Planning to Manufacturing by Grant McFarland.

2) Chip Design for Non-Designers: An Introduction by Juan-Antonio Carballo.

3) Demystifying Chipmaking by Ricahrd F. Yanda et al..

4) Fabless: The Transformation of the Semiconductor Industry by Daniel Nenni et al.

This blog has been very helpful to follow the recent trends and players from an investors standpoint - https://www.fabricatedknowledge.com

If you have Telegram there are a lot of books free to download on this channel: https://t.me/embedded_library

Publicly-traded Semiconductor companies like Intel and AMD publish reports to investors, so that might be a small but effective resource.

Microchip Fabricarion has its flaws but gives a good high level overview includinh bringing, test and packaging: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1203098.Microchip_Fabric...

Great book on the early industry:

https://www.amazon.com/Makers-Microchip-Documentary-Fairchil...

Learn the Mandarin language. Taiwan is the epicenter of the cutting edge work in the industry. China is the powerhouse of production for it too. Both speak Mandarin natively and it would behoove you to understand it and their cultures.

Gotta mention the timeless classic by Mead and Conway here.

Bits on chips

Hennessey and Patterson's computer architecture.

From a business or from a physics perspective?

is semico modern version of "rocket science"?

"oh c'mon it ain't semiconductor engineering!"