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AnandTech's Intro To Semiconductor Tech

Posted by Soulskill on from the absolutely-fab dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Computer hardware site AnandTech has posted a detailed introduction to semiconductor technology. It's deep enough to be insightful for understanding the chips that run your devices and the industry that built them, but also short enough that your eyes won't start bleeding in the process. The article starts by explaining why silicon is so important, and how a board is set up, structurally. Then it walks through transistor design and construction, and the underpinnings of CMOS logic. Finally, the article describes the manufacturing steps, including wafer creation, photolithography, and how metal is added/shaped at the end. They then go into the physics behind improving these components. It's a geeky and informative read.

6 of 21 comments (clear)

  1. Related: Indistingishable From Magic by Unknown+Lamer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Back at HOPE9, there was a really awesome presentation on semiconductor manufacturing. It's worth the entire 90 minutes and IMHO was the best part of the conference. I've ended up showing the video of it to a few folks now, and it never becomes less awesome.

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    HAL 7000, fewer features than the HAL 9000, but just as homicidal!
    1. Re:Related: Indistingishable From Magic by ArcadeMan · · Score: 2

      But they did it in Star Trek: The Next Generation!

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      Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
  2. Wrong site... by wbr1 · · Score: 2

    This site is only interested in deadlocked AGW arguments, political infighting, and tinfoil hattery. Please do not misunderstand, I am not complaining about that. These things have their place. However, real technical discussion is unappreciated here.

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    Silence is a state of mime.
    1. Re:Wrong site... by werepants · · Score: 2

      Maybe so... this kind of article won't generate much commentary most likely, but it is stuff like this that keeps me at slashdot. It would be interesting to know what the article view numbers are. I can't imagine that people in massive flamewars in the comments section are a high-value ad target, so I question whether posting that stuff is really all that lucrative.

  3. wow very good article by crgrace · · Score: 2

    I'm a professional in the business and I was really happy to see that they seem to have gotten everything right! I was prepared to roll my eyes when they showed a cross-section of a bipolar transistor (which they didn't) and their treatment of BEOL processing was outstanding.

    Bravo!

  4. A Harder Read than Advertised by mythosaz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    From the second paragraph, emphasis mine.

    Silicon is incredibly important as a material in the industry because it’s a semiconductor. Of course, the name is self-explanatory, but there’s more to it. The key here is the band structure. Band structure refers to the “bands” of energy levels that form due to the sheer number of orbital states that can be occupied in molecules. Those that understand how electron orbitals work will point out that each energy level is discrete, but due to the sheer number of orbital configurations, a seemingly continuous distribution of energy can be seen.

    Ah yes, completely self explanatory, and yes, we all remember our electron orbitals.