How chips are made: one layer at a time
A chip is not made in one go. It is built up on the wafer layer by layer: each layer is patterned, etched, coated with a new film, polished flat and cleaned, dozens of times over. This section takes one step at a time: what it does and why it is hard.
What do the seven process areas of a chip fab do?
Litho prints the pattern, etch cuts it, thin film adds a layer, CMP polishes, the furnace heats, implant adds atoms, wet clean washes. Each area explained.
What is photolithography? How do chip patterns get printed?
Photolithography (litho) uses light to print a chip's circuit onto the wafer: coat photoresist, expose it through a photomask, develop, etch. Explained simply.
Why is the lithography area in a chip fab yellow?
The yellow lights in a fab's lithography area protect the photoresist on the wafers, which reacts to ultraviolet and blue light. Explained simply.
- What is fab24hr?: the two ways to play, the four shifts, common questions, sources
- The life of a chip: how chips are made: tape-out, pilot run, mass production, wafer test, packaging, shipping
- A day in the life of a fab engineer: who does what (PE, EE, PIE, manufacturing), and the day hour by hour
- Who works in a chip fab: technicians, Manufacturing, process, equipment, Facilities, integration, QA, production control, masks, R&D, the chief, the vendor, and test and assembly at the test-and-assembly house: each role's day
- Chip fab jargon in plain English: MO, Hold, Q-time, OCAP and the rest, one plain sentence each
- fab24hr in the classroom: 20- and 40-minute lesson plans, one chapter of the main story per lesson, discussion questions, devices and privacy
- About and press kit: trailer, gameplay clips, descriptions and key facts