How Science Makes Microchips

Who Am I?

• I am an engineer for Synopsys.
• We make microchips and the tools to design them.
• I went to school and learned math and science.

Do you recognize these?

What's inside those black things?

A Microchip!

Where do Microchips come from?

What material do you see?

Silicon = Sand

Melt silicon to make glass.

Melted silicon/sand makes glass windows.

Melt silicon in a different way.

Slowly makes a giant class crystal.

The crystal cools down.

Here is a pure giant silicon crystal.

Cut the crystal into "wafers".

Wafers are used to make microchips.

Complex machines process wafers.

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What is on a microchip?

What do light switches do?

0 = OFF 1=ON

1's and 0's is information

Do these building blocks look familiar?

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They are like Legos for microchips.

This is what a hair looks like under a microscope.

Now see the hair compared to wires of a microchip.

I design the microchip with my computer.

We make many microchips on a wafer.

Then cut or "dice" the microchip out of the wafer.

We put microchips into a black package.