IEEE has a background piece for those (like me) wondering "who is this guy?" https://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/devices/the-high-sc... Impressive.
His inspiration, Jeri Ellsworth is just (if not more) impressive. Check out her youtube.
A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit
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Re: A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit
#12Awesome. 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 chemicals is essential for the many generations to come. Sometimes it is inexpensive, sometimes it is costly. You need to know how before you start, or it costs a lot more.
(Also, you can get someone else to pay for the hardware, the infrastructure, the material, the resists, the reagents, the safety training, and the waste disposal if you work/volunteer at a university's photolithography facility. They'll probably pay you, too.)
Re: A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit
#13If he could get feature size down to 10 microns someone might have a shot at making a microprocessor.
Re: A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit
#14Impressive to replicate silicon semiconductor process. But wouldn't it be more feasible to develop as good enough process node, flexible, thin film semiconductor devices? Have been observing developments of plastic based transistors, inks, processes like nanoimprint lithography, Cleanroom in a STEM microscope and Chad Mirkin's Tera Print system. Can a small scale nanfab emerge using tech such as Nano-Ops http://nano-…
So there is reel to reel OLED screen technology out there (basically a printing press for OLED screens).
http://www.flexolighting.eu/ (These guys have some pictures of the process).
It's probably also possible to print transistors directly. Here's a paper from 2017 that outlays that process.
Re: A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit
#15That's great! Are we anywhere near to making homebrew ICs on silicon at home? Yes, apparently we are! But it seems we are still far away from DIY kits, or even complete prototyping devices (like 3D printers).
Re: A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit
#16Awesome. 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…
I understand why it's necessary, but I was shocked that he uses piranha in his home garage. I cannot echo the above sentiment enough.
Re: A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit
#17Geeze, I though you needed a clean room to do this kind of work. I guess, being a hobby, with less concern for effort, loss of product, or cost versus profit, one might summon the will to try, try again, when confronted with botched fabrication runs.
Even with millimeter-scale components, I'd still think dust and debris could be a real problem. Is it just that 12 hour runs are short enough to just accept an imperfect production output, since it's a personal project, or is dust not as big a deal at this scale as I'd imagine?
Re: A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit
#18I 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…
What I understand is while semiconductor machines live in clean rooms, the wafers never leave the hyper clean environment inside the machines. And when wafers move from machine to machine it's via sealed enclosures.
Using long plastic box with a 3 axis gantry inside might be doable.
Re: A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit
#19Geeze, I though you needed a clean room to do this kind of work. I guess, being a hobby, with less concern for effort, loss of product, or cost versus profit, one might summon the will to try, try again, when confronted with botched fabrication runs. Even with millimeter-scale components, I'd still think dust and debris could be a real problem. Is it just that 12 hour runs are short enough to just accept an imperfect…
You do not need a cleanroom, just some laminar airflow to prevent dust contamination. That is easy to achieve with a bunch of fans and lab clothing.
Static electricity damage is prevented by grounding everything. (Important during lithography.)
The hard part is getting a reliable plasma oven and the requisite chemicals plus running the process to reliability.
Re: A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit
#20Awesome. 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…
I understand why it's necessary, but I was shocked that he uses piranha in his home garage. I cannot echo the above sentiment enough.
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