Chapter 1
From beach sand to pure silicon
Chapter 2
Designing the microscopic city
Chapter 3
Printing with light in the cleanroom
Chapter 4
Slicing, packaging, and testing the final chip
Ch 2 · Designing the microscopic city
BETA
steve Build microscopic layers of silicon to discover how a computer chip is actually made.
steve Engineers use highly specialized software to design the incredibly complex layouts of modern microprocessors.
steve Microchip Photolithography
Trace the light, trace the light, Draw a neon city in the silicon tonight!
steve Moore's Law accurately predicted that the number of transistors on a chip would double roughly every two years.
Fun Fact
Transistor scale: A modern computer chip contains more transistors than there are people on the entire planet Earth.
Quiz
Who observed that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles roughly every two years?
Glossary
integrated circuit (noun)
A tiny electronic circuit on a semiconductor substrate, typically silicon, containing numerous interconnected components. Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments built the first working prototype of this microelectronic design in 1958.
A tiny electronic circuit on a semiconductor substrate, typically silicon, containing numerous interconnected components. Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments built the first working prototype of this microelectronic design in 1958.