5 ms·
Why not hexagons?
by kowalski7cc 2y ago
Why not hexagons?
- kowalski7cc 2y agoHexagons are the bestagons
- gnramires 2y agoRectangles are straight up simpler :)
- wdh505 2y agoSo how about a compromise and get interlocking triangles?
- enchanted-gian 2y agoi enjoyed that cgp grey video so much i rewatch it every few months
- klysm 2y agoI’d imagine most things are designed in rectangular constraints
- BluSyn 2y agoGood for tessellation only if chips are also hexagons. Arguably chips themselves could be hexagons for better pin density and potentially thermal properties. Surprised nobody has tried this before.
- Out_of_Characte 2y agoYou cannot cut straight lines trough hexagons. Triangles would work but would be even more inconvenient to design cut and process into normal chips. So squares it is.
- londons_explore 2y agoWater jet cutters or EDM cutters could both be used on silicon and there is no need for either to cut straight lines. When silicon area is expensive and performance can be maximised by reducing average on-die wire length, hexagons sound like they might make sense. Obviously current layout tools prefer X-Y area splits, so a lot of tooling would have to be redesigned to make use of a probably rather small performance gain.
- krisoft 2y ago> Water jet cutters or EDM cutters could both be used on silicon Wouldn’t they contaminate the just fabbed silicon surfaces? (That being said i have no idea how swarf is typically managed in die cutting.)
- eightysixfour 2y agoIt isn’t a question of cutting at an angle, it is a question of cutting in a specific direction all the way across the water. Hexagons demand that you change directions multiple times while cutting at chip level precision across a wafer you are trying to hold in place with the same amount of accuracy.
- londons_explore 2y agoThe cutting accuracy can be really low compared to everything else - 100um accuracy is fine, and even a hobby level CNC machine can do that.
- Out_of_Characte 2y agoNo you can't. Anyone whose spent any time breaking glass into specific shapes knows how difficult it is. Glass can't handle the force required to break it in one go. Multiple perfect passes have to be made in order to do it with reasonable yield. Having corners inside your fault lines is asking for trouble. Chips arent that much different.
- 2y ago
- phkahler 2y agoI'm not sure how chips are cut from a wafer, but long straight cuts can be used for a grid. If it's more like laser cutting via CNC then shape might not matter.