Quote:
Originally Posted by multiweb
This is the coolest video ever. I had no idea. Fascinating. 
How do they make the layer patterns they project in the first place? |
Hi Marc,
Masks or reticles are first produced using optical lithography, electron-beam
lithography or a technology called nanoimprint lithography.
To give you some sense of the geometry sizes on the absolute
state-of-the-art semiconductor devices, currently we are at
5 nanometres (nm).
Semiconductor engineers refer to these milestones in successive
generations of device geometry capabilities as "nodes".
I remember when the "node" was at 5 micron - a thousand times larger
than it is today - and we thought that was small.
Now the wavelength of plain old visible light goes from 380nm to 750nm.
So to produce semiconductors geometries at these 5nm nodes requires
an ants-pants technology called extreme ultra-violet (eUV).
Now this technology is so advanced that it is the type of stuff spies
would kill other spies for in James Bond movies.
And at the absolute pinnacle of this technology is a a company you
probably have never heard of called TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor
Manufacturing Company).
Off-hand, I can't think of a more important company in the western
world right now than TSMC.
Actually, there is one other company. It's a Dutch company called
ASML and they make the lithography equipment for TSMC.
And this technology behind the technology of just how you make an eUV
flash of light is impressive in itself. It requires megawatts of power.
And there are a whole lot of other things that just don't work the same
way at visible wavelengths they also had to overcome.
Anyway these MEM's chips don't require eUV but the main CPU in
a state-of-the-art smartphone does.
You might find these videos interesting :-
A 5 minute introduction to photolithography :-
https://youtu.be/oBKhN4n-EGI
Inside TSMC (4 minutes) :-
https://youtu.be/Hb1WDxSoSec
12 minute video showing ants-pants eUV lithograpgy.
https://youtu.be/f0gMdGrVteI