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microchip-fabrication.md

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Microchip fabrication

Or what happens after GDSII.

Tools:

  • bed of nails: TODO

No cameras in fabs, phones have them drilled out: https://youtu.be/NGFhc8R_uO4?t=1567

Wafer

Doping

  • in past, with diffusion
  • later, with particle acceleration

Who makes chips and equipment to make chips

JTAG

Silicon material

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_melting Major advance that allowed for the production of pure germanium, and led to the discovery of the semi-conductor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wafer_%28electronics%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czochralski_process Hard because you need 0.1 degree temperature control at 1000 degrees: https://youtu.be/ihkRwArnc1k?t=961

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystallite

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point-contact_transistor the first transistor type. Hard to make, and too unstable. This was Shockley's major advance, the junction transistor: https://youtu.be/ihkRwArnc1k?t=1363

Gordon Teal from Texas Instruments made a modification of Czochralski by adding PN impurities at the right time to form a PNP sandwitch, making a fully solid state transistor: https://youtu.be/ihkRwArnc1k?t=1429 I think this makes a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipolar_junction_transistor

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alloy-junction_transistor were another attempt https://youtu.be/ihkRwArnc1k?t=1678 using indium.

https://youtu.be/uGRNXmWng3M?t=278 mentions that germanium was bad because it was not stable to temperature TODO why.

People wanted to use silicon because it was much more abundant, but it was hard because it was too reactive. The oxide layer was discovered by chance when a valve broke at bell labs.

Purified silicon rods (poly): https://youtu.be/uGRNXmWng3M?t=497 Just like the wiki photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycrystalline_silicon#/media/File:Leo_Tie_Rodsedit.jpg

Japanese made advances in silicon purification: https://youtu.be/uGRNXmWng3M?t=644 Consistent with: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2011/03/21/japan-quake-knocked-out-25-of-global-silicon-wafer-production/#56814ec4553e

The mesa transistor was the first main product of Fairchild: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_transistor#Mesa_transistor Good schematic: https://youtu.be/uGRNXmWng3M?t=914 That was unstable after sales, so they made the planar transistor.

Silicon vendors

History

Americans gave factory tours to Japanese scientists: https://youtu.be/ihkRwArnc1k?t=1873 which made detailed notes and sent them back to Japan, where they were treated as highly confidential.

https://youtu.be/ihkRwArnc1k?t=2270 mentions that Sony's breakthrough was an Indium Phosphorus method, and that as in the US for TI, the initial explosive market were amplifiers in radios, which sold incredibly because they advanced portability to a new level.

https://youtu.be/uGRNXmWng3M?t=1108 shows how the planar transistors are made quite well.

Noyce sold planar transistor license to Japan.

Agricultural spraying season reduced semi-conductor yields in the 1970s because no clean room: https://youtu.be/ansXGewduN4?t=1227

In order to make cheaper calculators, Japanese pioneered liquid crystal usage: https://youtu.be/ansXGewduN4?t=2050

https://www.quora.com/How-did-people-design-integrated-circuits-in-early-years

4004

http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/the-surprising-story-of-the-first-microprocessors

Jack Kilby

At Texas instruments, made some big step in 58. TODO what exactly. He went for germanium. Noyce went for Silicon and scored. Apparently independent.

Problem was called tyranny of numbers.

The Chip That Jack Built https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLNo4absXLA TODO source.

Made development during 2 weeks that other people had a mandatory vacation, but he was too new to get it.

Bonding machines

Small scale

Multi-project wafer

Easter eggs

Misc

News

Sources

Photolithography

TODO: who makes the masks? Customer?

VIA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Via_(electronics)

Process corners

PVT

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Process_corners

Nodes

14 nm

16 nm

Both are basically the same: