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Circuit designer here - feel free to ask any questions about the manufacturing process, design etc. Having a thorough understanding of the process, I thought this was hilarious. But if you really want to understand the process, it's pretty terrible. It spends 10 steps on making a wafer, and then the bulk of the actual process is condensed to 16.
>3) Now you have 98% concentrated silicon dioxide. Purify it to 99.9% pure silicon dioxide.
>4) Purify it further to 99.9999999% polysilicon metal.
>While cutting-edge nanometer scale features are not likely to be accessible for a hobbyist, micron-scale amateur chip fabrication does appear to be quite feasible. I have not tried this myself, but Sam Zeloof has, and you should definitely check out his YouTube channel. I think you could probably even build some basic chips with far less equipment than he has if you get the optics right. You could probably make it a hobby business selling cusom chips to other tech people!
>A Word Of Caution: In case it wasn't already clear, I don't advise that anyone actually attempt making integrated circuits in their apartment in the manner shown in this video. The 'photoresist' and 'developer solution' in this video is just a colored prop. The real chemicals are usually hazardous and you should only work with them with proper safety gear in a well ventilated area or in a fume hood.
Its outdated and in reality you would go to Shenzhen or use a custom fab to make custom designed chips with raw materials sourced from special exotic materials that only make sense for scaled operation.
I highlighted the steps 3 and 4 because its not how its done at all. High grade silicon is obtained in a pure state and doped for the chips rather than obtaining random types and refining them.
Its not even easy compared to homemade nuclear reactors, which need a lot of natural sources of uranium to enrich but can be done, the refinement is more related to older germanium chips.
I recall there being a game mentioned somewhere here on HN, where you start with basic logic gates (I think), and you build up a fundamental CPU at the end of the game, using the parts you discovered along the way. Problem is, I don't remember what the game is called, and no amount of searching seems to help me. Anyone know what it was called?
>Print and explore the TIS-100 manual, which details the inner-workings of the TIS-100 while evoking the aesthetics of a vintage computer manual!
>Solve more than 20 puzzles, competing against your friends and the world to minimize your cycle, instruction, and node counts.
>Design your own challenges in the TIS-100’s 3 sandboxes, including a “visual console” that lets you create your own games within the game!
>Uncover the mysteries of the TIS-100… who created it, and for what purpose?
https://zachtronics.com/shenzhen-io/
>Build circuits using a variety of components from different manufacturers, like microcontrollers, memory, and logic gates. Write code in a compact and powerful assembly language where every instruction can be conditionally executed.
>Read the included manual, which includes over 30 pages of original datasheets, reference guides, and technical diagrams.
>Get to know the colorful cast of characters at your new employer, located in the electronics capital of the world.
>Get creative! Build your own games and devices in the sandbox. Engineering is hard! Take a break and play a brand-new twist on solitaire.
I didn't know an assembly game could be made, it's a pretty hard game only progammers and very logical people would enjoy.
Jokes aside, its fascinating to see how complex computers are under the many layers of abstraction that we've built on top of them.
Circuit designer here - feel free to ask any questions about the manufacturing process, design etc. Having a thorough understanding of the process, I thought this was hilarious. But if you really want to understand the process, it's pretty terrible. It spends 10 steps on making a wafer, and then the bulk of the actual process is condensed to 16.
What's the canonical book? I used to know this from my EE days, but it's been too long.
I haven't been in school for a while, so I'm not sure what's current. I really liked Baker's book - CMOS circuit design. It had a decent overview of the manufacturing process for the perspective of a designer, as well as good introductions to major design topics.
Unfortunately, with modern processes, most of the textbook design equations and learning no longer apply so it becomes as much learning an art as it is science.
It's fantastic and I highly recommend watching it.
I've always been curious how someone gets into this line of work. Is it all via college / post education and your directly recruited by these companies? Obviously, this is a very hard (impossible?) thing to teach yourself. I can't imagine more than a few universities offer this type of education? Where would you start / what path would you go down to be a chip designer / work for an Intel / AMD ???
> this is a very hard (impossible?) thing to teach yourself It isn't! The book "Code" by Charles Petzold is a great introduction to digital electronics and computer architecture. There's also the "Nand to Tetris" course (which I didn't take but people here are always recommending). You can build a simple CPU in a digital circuit simulator. If you're feeling adventurous you can write it in Verilog and simulate it, and…
The relevant disciplines are physics (mostly condensed matter), inorganic chemistry, industrial engineering, and electronics.
Find a school that teaches semiconductor engineering, take their courses through vlsi and ASICs.
Then land a job at a fab and the rest is learn on the job training.
It’s like the difference between a PC board fab and an electronics design engineer, taken to the google power.
I've always been curious how someone gets into this line of work. Is it all via college / post education and your directly recruited by these companies? Obviously, this is a very hard (impossible?) thing to teach yourself. I can't imagine more than a few universities offer this type of education? Where would you start / what path would you go down to be a chip designer / work for an Intel / AMD ???
My brother and several of his friends do this for a living at Intel. Most of them have Electrical Engineering PhDs, though I believe one is a Chemical Engineer. My brother's thesis specifically was in 2d transistor design and worked under a Material Science professor. I believe most universities have professors who teach Semiconductors classes, whether it is under the name Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering…
It's been a while, but I remember the biggest danger isn't the acidity itself, not even being a strong acid, but fluorine's tendency to "deep dive". It just sort of slowly eats into things and creates layers that are comparatively hard to remove. So if you spill hydrochloric acid or whatever on yourself, you wash it off, maybe get some severe tissue damage, but it's localized and washes off.
On the other hand, the HF tends to stick around, and as a fun side-effect, the fluoride salts it creates are poisonous to the body. And HF is tame compared to some fluorine chemicals used in chip etching/production...
So if I somehow time travelled to ~1800 there's no way I'm making my own modern computer ?! Jokes aside, its fascinating to see how complex computers are under the many layers of abstraction that we've built on top of them.