If he could get feature size down to 10 microns someone might have a shot at making a microprocessor.
I'd gladly reproduce some vintage style computer with a large number of his ICs. Just for fun :) a B5000 maybe
A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit
31–40 of 122 posts
Re: A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit
#32Awesome. For those considering exploring some of these steps in their own garage -- the chemistry is dangerous, perhaps HF in particular, as it doesn't hurt, it just kills you a few hours later. Can you do this in a garage? Absolutely, but learn everything you need to know from an ensemble of safety-minded mentors before you strike out on your own. It's not just about safety for you, proper disposal of these chemical…
Of course, caution is always warranted when dealing with HF. However, I don't see any reason why it can't be safely used at home. In fact HF is found in lots of commonly used household cleaning products like rust and stain removers. Plenty of people are using Goof Off Rust remover and are not dropping dead later in the day.
[deleted]
Re: A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit
#33Awesome. For those considering exploring some of these steps in their own garage -- the chemistry is dangerous, perhaps HF in particular, as it doesn't hurt, it just kills you a few hours later. Can you do this in a garage? Absolutely, but learn everything you need to know from an ensemble of safety-minded mentors before you strike out on your own. It's not just about safety for you, proper disposal of these chemical…
Nice HF technical overview: https://ehs.unc.edu/files/2015/09/hydrofluoricacid.pdf (tldr; nope; read it.)
I needed to dissolve(ha!) fluorite once. You can get it started by adding a few drops of conc H2SO4 to your beautiful aqua regia solution. It goes deeper red, some happy bubbles appear, and as long as it stays put, makes it's own "aqua nasty"(pg88) as you gently add your powdered sample.
I thought AQR+SA was called aqua nasty, but I cant get any hits other than this AA pdf with explicit HF added. Maybe an actual chemist can chime in, is there another name for the aqua regia +H2SO4 mix?
https://archive-resources.coleparmer.com/Manual_pdfs/28750-1...
Re: A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit
#34Awesome. For those considering exploring some of these steps in their own garage -- the chemistry is dangerous, perhaps HF in particular, as it doesn't hurt, it just kills you a few hours later. Can you do this in a garage? Absolutely, but learn everything you need to know from an ensemble of safety-minded mentors before you strike out on your own. It's not just about safety for you, proper disposal of these chemical…
Of course, caution is always warranted when dealing with HF. However, I don't see any reason why it can't be safely used at home. In fact HF is found in lots of commonly used household cleaning products like rust and stain removers. Plenty of people are using Goof Off Rust remover and are not dropping dead later in the day.
Oh man.. you need to talk to those who have worked with the stuff..
The amount in household products is essentially zero and one drop of the pure stuff and you are gone..
this stuff is nightmare material, i know, i have worked with and around it.
70% pure accident..
PFF http://www.ehs.ucsb.edu/files/docs/ls/HF_fatality.pdf
HTML http://www.geo.utexas.edu/geosafety/hf-accident.html
10% strength MSDS
HTML http://www.kendon.com.au/Catalogue/MSDS/Industrial/10%25Hydr...
Re: A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit
#35Uoou... now this is really cool, this guy is incredible :)
Re: A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit
#36When I read things like this I start to think about the following question:
Given no technology at all (i.e. after an apocalypse!), how would one go about creating a computer (as we know them). What sort of knowledge would you need?
The science of these things is basically multi decades of trial and error in various disciplines. Imagine a manual that explained how to create everything from scratch!
Re: A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit
#37When I read things like this I start to think about the following question: Given no technology at all (i.e. after an apocalypse!), how would one go about creating a computer (as we know them). What sort of knowledge would you need? The science of these things is basically multi decades of trial and error in various disciplines. Imagine a manual that explained how to create everything from scratch!
Most electrical and computer engineering undergrad degrees (not CS) do give you this information.
You first learn how to create a transistor, then basic AND/OR logic gates with individual transistors, then adders and subtractors, and then eventually a pipelined processor with look ahead execution.
Re: A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit
#38Awesome. For those considering exploring some of these steps in their own garage -- the chemistry is dangerous, perhaps HF in particular, as it doesn't hurt, it just kills you a few hours later. Can you do this in a garage? Absolutely, but learn everything you need to know from an ensemble of safety-minded mentors before you strike out on your own. It's not just about safety for you, proper disposal of these chemical…
Of course, caution is always warranted when dealing with HF. However, I don't see any reason why it can't be safely used at home. In fact HF is found in lots of commonly used household cleaning products like rust and stain removers. Plenty of people are using Goof Off Rust remover and are not dropping dead later in the day.
This comment is misinformed and should be deleted because it is so dangerous. HF will kill you for looking at it in the wrong way; please don't handle it unless you understand the danger it poses to you and the people around you.
Re: A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit
#39I was looking for how he managed the clean room or did he not go too small. Found the answer in the IEEE article shared by another commenter (he didn't go below 10 micron tech node). But now I have a follow up question, if getting a clean room is obviously harder, isn't "clean box" more doable? E.g., if you line up a bunch of tables, and put a long box on top that acts like a poor man's assembly line. The insides of…
"clean box" is already used. It's called FOUP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOUP
Re: A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit
#40Awesome. For those considering exploring some of these steps in their own garage -- the chemistry is dangerous, perhaps HF in particular, as it doesn't hurt, it just kills you a few hours later. Can you do this in a garage? Absolutely, but learn everything you need to know from an ensemble of safety-minded mentors before you strike out on your own. It's not just about safety for you, proper disposal of these chemical…
Of course, caution is always warranted when dealing with HF. However, I don't see any reason why it can't be safely used at home. In fact HF is found in lots of commonly used household cleaning products like rust and stain removers. Plenty of people are using Goof Off Rust remover and are not dropping dead later in the day.
Goof Off MSDS: https://goofoffproducts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/RustB...
Good to see the (not so out of place) note about conc HF. They claim <0.5%. I would treat it with respect. Getting it on your skin is a bad idea.