Sand. Made up of 25 percent
silicon, is, after oxygen, the second most abundant chemical element that's in
the earth's crust. Sand, especially quartz, has high percentages of silicon in
the form of silicon dioxide (SiO2) and is the base ingredient for semiconductor
manufacturing.
After procuring raw sand and
separating the silicon, the excess material is disposed of and the silicon is
purified in multiple steps to finally reach semiconductor manufacturing quality
which is called electronic grade silicon. The resulting purity is so great that
electronic grade silicon may only have one alien atom for every one billion
silicon atoms. After the purification process, the silicon enters the melting
phase. In this picture you can see how one big crystal is grown from the
purified silicon melt. The resulting mono-crystal is called an ingot.
A mono-crystal ingot is
produced from electronic grade silicon. One ingot weighs approximately 100
kilograms (or 220 pounds) and has a silicon purity of 99.9999 percent.
The ingot is then moved onto
the slicing phase where individual silicon discs, called wafers, are sliced
thin. Some ingots can stand higher than five feet. Several different diameters
of ingots exist depending on the required wafer size. Today, CPUs are commonly
made on 300 mm wafers.
Once cut, the wafers are
polished until they have flawless, mirror-smooth surfaces. Intel doesn't
produce its own ingots and wafers, and instead purchases manufacturing- ready
wafers from third-party companies. Intel’s advanced 45 nm High-K/Metal Gate
process uses wafers with a diameter of 300 mm (or 12-inches). When Intel first
began making chips, it printed circuits on 50 mm (2-inches) wafers. These days,
Intel uses 300 mm wafers, resulting in decreased costs per chip.
The blue liquid, depicted
above, is a photo resist finish similar to those used in film for photography.
The wafer spins during this step to allow an evenly-distributed coating that's
smooth and also very thin.
At this stage, the
photo-resistant finish is exposed to ultra violet (UV) light. The chemical
reaction triggered by the UV light is similar to what happens to film material
in a camera the moment you press the shutter button.
Areas of the resist on the wafer that have been exposed to UV light will become soluble. The exposure is done using masks that act like stencils. When used with UV light, masks create the various circuit patterns. The building of a CPU essentially repeats this process over and over until multiple layers are stacked on top of each other.
A lens (middle) reduces the mask's image to a small focal point. The resulting "print" on the wafer is typically four times smaller, linearly, than the mask's pattern.
Areas of the resist on the wafer that have been exposed to UV light will become soluble. The exposure is done using masks that act like stencils. When used with UV light, masks create the various circuit patterns. The building of a CPU essentially repeats this process over and over until multiple layers are stacked on top of each other.
A lens (middle) reduces the mask's image to a small focal point. The resulting "print" on the wafer is typically four times smaller, linearly, than the mask's pattern.
In the picture we have a
representation of what a single transistor would appear like if we could see it
with the naked eye. A transistor acts as a switch, controlling the flow of
electrical current in a computer chip. Intel researchers have developed
transistors so small that they claim roughly 30 million of them could fit on
the head of a pin.
After being exposed to UV
light, the exposed blue photo resist areas are completely dissolved by a
solvent. This reveals a pattern of photo resist made by the mask. The
beginnings of transistors, interconnects, and other electrical contacts begin
to grow from this point.
The photo resist layer
protects wafer material that should not be etched away. Areas that were exposed
will be etched away with chemicals.
After the etching, the photo
resist is removed and the desired shape becomes visible.
More photo resist (blue) is
applied and then re-exposed to UV light. Exposed photo resist is then
washed off again before the next step, which is called ion doping. This is the
step where ion particles are exposed to the wafer, allowing the silicon to change
its chemical properties in a way that allows the CPU to control the flow of
electricity.
Through a process called ion
implantation (one form of a process called doping) the exposed areas of the
silicon wafer are bombarded with ions. Ions are implanted in the silicon wafer
to alter the way silicon?i these areas conduct electricity. Ions are propelled
onto the surface of the wafer at very high velocities. An electrical field
accelerates the ions to a speed of over 300,000 km/hour (roughly 185,000 mph)
After the ion implantation,
the photo resist will be removed and the material that should have been doped
(green) now has alien atoms implanted.
This transistor is close to
being finished. Three holes have been etched into the insulation layer (magenta
color) above the transistor. These three holes will be filled with copper,
which will make up the connections to other transistors.
The wafers are put into a
copper sulphate solution at this stage. Copper ions are deposited onto the
transistor through a process called electroplating. The copper ions travel from
the positive terminal (anode) to the negative terminal (cathode) which is
represented by the wafer.
The copper ions settle as a
thin layer on the wafer surface.
The excess
material is polished off leaving a very thin layer of copper.
Multiple metal layers are
created to interconnects (think wires) in between the various transistors. How
these connections have to be “wired” is determined by the architecture and
design teams that develop the functionality of the respective processor (for
example, Intel’s Core i7 processor). While computer chips look extremely flat,
they may actually have over 20 layers to form complex circuitry. If you look at
a magnified view of a chip, you will see an intricate network of circuit lines
and transistors that look like a futuristic, multi-layered highway
system.
This fraction of a ready
wafer is being put through a first functionality test. In this stage test
patterns are fed into every single chip and the response from the chip
monitored and compared to "the right answer."
After tests determine that
the wafer has a good yield of functioning processor units, the wafer is cut
into pieces (called dies).
The dies that responded with
the right answer to the test pattern will be put forward for the next step
(packaging). Bad dies are discarded. Several years ago, Intel made key chains
out of bad CPU dies.
This is an individual die,
which has been cut out in the previous step (slicing).
The substrate, the die, and
the heatspreader are put together to form a completed processor. The green
substrate builds the electrical and mechanical interface for the processor to
interact with the rest of the PC system. The silver heatspreader is a thermal
interface where a cooling solution will be applied. This will keep the
processor cool during operation.
A microprocessor is the most
complex manufactured product on earth. In fact, it takes hundreds of steps and
only the most important ones have been visualized in this picture story.
During this final test the
processors will be tested for their key characteristics (among the tested
characteristics are power dissipation and maximum frequency).
Based on the test result of
class testing processors with the same capabilities are put into the same
transporting trays. This process is called "binning". Binning
determines the maximum operating frequency of a processor, and batches are
divided and sold according to stable specifications.
The manufactured and tested
processors either go to system
manufacturers in trays or into retail stores in a box.
Many thanks to Intel. Check
out Intel's site for full size images of this entire process.
