Semiconductor Manufacturing, Wafer Fab, Integrated Circuits, Microchips.

[AGodspeed]

Tell me what you know. Tell me what you think I should know. Tell me if I'm being too vague. 😉

Basically, I want a more complete understanding of this field of technology. Can you guys offer any good books or links that I can read up on? Or perhaps you would like to explain a massive subject like this by yourself. 😀

 

[Superdoopercooper]

Dude... this is the most vague thing you possible could ask. There are so many areas and facets of semiconducts... that's why there are 100's of companies, each with their own specialties... and tons of different manufacturing techniques, etc. You have Digital, Analog, Mixed-Signal, RF, sub-micron processing, nanometer processing, micromachines, SOC (sys. on a chip), yadda yadda yadda.

What do you want to know? 😕:Q

 

[rimshaker]

Don't wanna sound like a smart ass, but yea, that is a very vague and impossible thing to do in just reading simple threads. You have to work your way through an actual EE degree and then obtain at least a Masters level degree to get into advanced topics of IC fabrication. Reading a bunch of books by yourself isn't the most comprehensive or effective way either, you also need hands-on learning. Successfully completing a graduate degree is really the only way to learn and comprehend this massive subject.

I'm not saying you can't learn anything by yourself, by all means learn!! It's just that you only cover bits and pieces of things, and it's difficult to see the 'big picture.'

 

[Superdoopercooper]

<< Don't wanna sound like a smart ass, but yea, that is a very vague and impossible thing to do in just reading simple threads. You have to work your way through an actual EE degree and then obtain at least a Masters level degree to get into advanced topics of IC fabrication. Reading a bunch of books by yourself isn't the most comprehensive or effective way either, you also need hands-on learning. Successfully completing a graduate degree is really the only way to learn and comprehend this massive subject. I'm not saying you can't learn anything by yourself, by all means learn!! It's just that you only cover bits and pieces of things, and it's difficult to see the 'big picture.' >>



To further stress rimshaker's point... I have a Bachelor's and Master's degree from a somewhat prestigious institution of higher learning... and I'm a test engineer for a semiconductor company... AND I STILL DON"T REALLY UNDRESTAND HOW SEMICONDUCTORS WORK, **from a process standpoint.** I mean... layers of doped material and oxides and etc. etc. etc... that somehow work together to make a CPU or something. 😕 :Q As far as I'm concerned, semiconductor processing is black magic, and there are lots of highly skilled magicians making some extremely cool stuff.

Ultra cool stuff that intersts me:

TI's DLP (micro-mirrors)
Micromachines
HD-DVD (need for high precision, new wavelength laser technology)
etc.

 

[StandardCell]

TI had a great video about 20 minutes long that explained how they make semiconductors, from sand to packaged product. If you can find it, that'd be a good thing to watch and learn from. Mind you, they never talked about copper or other more exotic processes or semiconductor materials, but it'd give you a good idea. For process technology, I really don't have any links, but call the EE department at a local university and you might be able to borrow a copy of the TI tape, if they have it, or at least point you in the right direction.

The other half of the voodoo of chips is the design, and I've been involved in nearly every phase of digital ASIC design. But, I'm not getting into it at all here. Go to http://www-ee.eng.hawaii.edu/~msmith/ASICs/HTML/ASICs.htm and http://www.lsilogic.com/support/customer_education/fs20DownLoads/pdf/ASIC_Primer.pdf to see more about ASIC design. That's only digital stuff too - analog design is something that I don't have good links to and uses much-different design methodologies, nor do I know much about micromachines/MEMS.

I guess you asked a question something like "where do I learn about biology"... 😀

 

[Eskimo]

For beginning to understand semiconductor manufacturing and process technology I would suggest Peter Van Zant's book Microchip Fabrication, the newly updated 4th edition has more on copper damascene processing. I used an earlier edition of this book in my freshman Intro to Microelectronics course in college. It has the fundamentals of how semiconductors are made. You can buy it from Amazon.

Once you get past the basics of fabrication and want to know how the devices actually function you are going to want to look into a device physics book. If you want the low-down on formulas, graphs, and functionality without a lot of derivation and explanation I have enjoyed the "Modular Series on Solid State Devices". They are small soft cover blue books and should only cost ~$15 a piece from a college book store or slightly more online. I got the most use out of volumes I and V.

If you want a nice thick textbook with lots of problems, derivations and the whole nine yards then I'd suggest Robert Pierret's (he also wrote the modular series btw ;🙂 )Semiconductor Device Fundamentals. It is also available online.

The video standardcell might be talking about is called "Silicon Run". It is actually a series of videos, Silicon Run Lite is a very brief introductory video and goes from sand to finished product in about 20 minutes. There are Silicon Run videos for each process module (lithography, etch, etc.). I know they always show them at SemiCon conventions and I've seen them at universities and companies.

edit: Or you could just do like me and get a degree in it, I highly recommend http://www.microe.rit.edu/ 😀:|

 

[interchange]

I find Pirriet's book to be good for having all the details from lattice structure to carriers to Fermi equations, etc. But if you want to know how MOSFETS (used in digital IC's) work, you might want to pick up Jaeger's book (forgot the title). But to understand how things are fabricated, you probably want to look into literature on VLSI design.

 

[rimshaker]

There's a huge difference between reading some books on just semiconductors or wafer fabrication, and reading lots MORE books by seeking a degree and also getting graded/tested on everything. It might not sound or seem like it when you think about it... but trust me (us), it IS different. You need the foundations of the math and physics courses to completely understand basic derivations of, for example, electric and magnetic fields. And still you need other courses like circuits, electromagnetics, control systems, DSP, etc. to help expand that knowledge through practical application. Not to mention some actual laboratory and fab experience. Otherwise, you're just reading facts on paper... that's it.

 

[interchange]

I don't necessarily agree with you on that one, rimshaker. Most textbooks have a fairly good explanitory approach in addition to supplementary mathematics. I've never heard of a book specifically on FAB design techniques that wasn't a textbook with some engineering problems in it. I agree with you that understanding this stuff takes years of effort and some practical experience, but there can be a lot of qualitative things to gain from textbooks.

 

[Eskimo]

<< I've never heard of a book specifically on FAB design techniques that wasn't a textbook with some engineering problems in it. I agree with you that understanding this stuff takes years of effort and some practical experience, but there can be a lot of qualitative things to gain from textbooks. >>



Try Wolf & Tauber's Silicon Processing for the VLSI era. Nice reference book but horrible classroom text. It has about half a page at the end of each chapter devoted to some problems that seem like they were thrown in as an afterthought. The references section for each chapter by contrast is often 3-4 pages 🙂.

You can learn from reading textbooks but you'll never attain the same level of comprehension and understanding that you'll get from actually taking a sequence of classes from a educational institution or at least real world experience. There are a few semiconductor technology courses offered at community colleges in cities with semiconductor industries present in which you could learn some of these basics at a fairly reasonable cost. Some even have access to lab facilities.