Photolithography, etching and doping create chips.
Wafer processing: oxidation, photolithography, etching, deposition (CVD, PVD), ion implantation, CMP, metallisation, repeated for many layers in cleanrooms; then wafer test, dicing, packaging. Feature sizes reach nanometres using EUV lithography; yield depends on defect density.
A modern chip takes hundreds of process steps over months.
Semiconductor fabrication builds the chips that control nearly every modern product, through repeated patterning and material changes.
Photolithography, etching and doping create chips.
Semiconductor fabrication builds the chips that control nearly every modern product, through repeated patterning and material changes.
Transferring a circuit pattern onto a light-sensitive resist with light through a mask, which then guides etching or doping.
Dust particles can ruin tiny features, so chip fabrication happens in controlled air with very low particle counts.
Typical applications include patterning a transistor gate with photolithography, etching trenches in silicon for memory cells and implanting dopants to create regions of a chip.
Study "Powder and ceramic processing" first (topic 29 of 102 in Manufacturing, Robotics & Systems). It covers the groundwork this topic builds on.
Moore's law. Mask layers. Cleanroom classes.
A modern chip takes hundreds of process steps over months.
The next topic is "Assembly and joining", which builds directly on this one.
It is classed as Beginner in Manufacturing, Robotics & Systems (topic 30 of 102). It is an entry-level topic. It relies only on basic school mathematics and the ideas introduced earlier in this discipline.
Want to practise? Open the interactive course for quick checks, quizzes, simulations and progress tracking.