3 ms·
I doubt there is any man-made object more complex than a state of the art semiconductor. The amount of science and engineering that has gone into the evolution
by 11thEarlOfMar 3y ago
I doubt there is any man-made object more complex than a state of the art semiconductor. The amount of science and engineering that has gone into the evolution of the fabrication should not be taken for granted. Exotic is an understatement. Just for a sliver of insight, take a look at the ASML lithography tool and how it generates the light that exposes the nanoscale circuits on the chip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv40Viz-KTc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv40Viz-KTc
And that was filmed years ago, as today, TSMC is using ASML machines at 7 nm and below.
Puff piece or not, the equipment companies have delivered technical wonders under extreme duress and endured brutal business cycles for many decades while still managing to enable these feats of science and engineering.
- civilitty 3y agoWow I thought all the LHC hardware looked impressive. That ASML EUV machine is something else!
- highwaylights 3y agoI'm a bit confused by this. The video was posted to YouTube in 2021. It looks like a video shot in 2021. It has a copyright notice at the end that states 2021. Yet it's talking about a then-current 193nm wavelength lithography, which according to this post from ASML's newsroom was the then-current process for producing 100nm chips at the end of 2000: https://www.asml.com/en/news/press-releases/2000/asml-announces-industrys-most-advanced-193nm-lithography-system https://www.asml.com/en/news/press-releases/2000/asml-announ... According to the reporters comments at the start of the video, this would have been a current process when he started at Intel 21 years ago, but he's talking about it as a current process? I'm sure I've missed something simple in the video but I don't know what it is?
- ThrowawayTestr 3y ago193nm is the wavelength of the light used. The single digit nm fugue you're probably familiar with is the size of the features on the chip.
- highwaylights 3y agoYeah I’m assuming that’s what it is due to the reference to a 13.5nm node later. Thanks for clarifying.
- gretyuph 3y agoIsn’t the transistor size on the “3 nm” node around 30 nm?
- thfuran 3y agoI haven't watched the video yet, but most things don't need state of the art process—that's pretty much just for the main processors of phones and computers. There are fabs still running much older processes for everything else that just doesn't need the smallest possible transistors—toasters, industrial equipment, etc. Edit: watching the video though, it's about an EUV machine, which is definitely recent tech. The 193 nm figure is actually referring to its predecessors. It generates 13.5 nm light.
- tester756 3y agoThat's why semiconductor engineering is current "rocket science"