Creating Computer Chips
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Transcript of Creating Computer Chips
Creating Computer Chips
Integrated Circuits
What is an IC?
In the 1950s computers were built with vacuum tubes
A vacuum tube is• A single switch• Produced a lot of heat• Used a lot of power• Burned out frequently
What is an IC?
By the mid 1950s vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors.
A transistor • is a single switch• uses low power• gives off little heat• is reliable
What is an IC?
In 1959 two engineers independently invented ways to put transistorized switches onto a wafer of silicon.
Jack Kilby, working at
Texas Instruments,
Robert Noyce at Fairchild
Semiconductor
What is an IC?
An Integrated Circuit is• hundreds to thousands of
switches (transistors)on a single silicon chip
• low power
• inexpensive
• reliable
More powerful computers are possible with ICs
How are ICs Made?
Design• It takes a team of up to 600 engineers. • The engineers face a task equivalent to trying to
design a small city from the ground up.
How are ICs Made?
Manufacture• Computer chips begin as a material called
silicon.• Silicon is an element like oxygen or carbon
How are ICs Made?
Manufacture• The silicon is crafted into thin, large
"wafer-like" sheets. (wafers)
• The transistors and other components are applied in layers
How are ICs Made?
Manufacture• A single wafer may contain hundreds or
even thousands of individual ICs
• Each IC is removed from the wafer and placed in a package that we know as a computer chip
Creating ICs—Vocabulary
Bunny Suit Mask
Clean Room Micron
Contamination Photoresist
Etching Quality Control
Fab Semiconductor
Fabrication Wafer
Bunny Suit
• Special clothing worn by workers in a clean room that helps to keep human contaminants away from the chips.
Clean Room
• The area of the fabrication plant where the chips are made that is kept extremely clean of dust, dirt and other contamination.
Contamination
• Intrusion or contact with dirt, dust or impurities that adversely affect chip fabrication.
Etching
• The process of immersing the wafer in a chemical bath—usually an acid or solvent—that removes the photoresist that was exposed to light.
Fab
• The fabrication plant that houses the entire business of manufacturing computer chips.
Fabrication
• The process of manufacturing computer chips.
Mask
• A patterned plate or template used to expose selected areas of a wafer to light in the process of fabrication a computer chip.
Micron
A unit of measure that is one millionth of a meter; synonymous with micrometer.
Photoresist
• A light-sensitive material that changes chemically when light shines on to it.
Quality Control
• The stage of testing chips for defects. The smallest mistake, such as a slight misalignment of the mask, can destroy some or all of the chips on a wafer.
Micron
• A unit of measure that is one millionth of a meter; synonymous with micrometer.
Semiconductor
• A substance, like silicon, with electrical conductivity between that of an insulator and a conductor: Most electronic circuits are made with semiconductor components.
Wafer
• A very thin slice of very pure silicon crystal (99.9999% pure)