How is the chip stuck in the neck made?

The ZTE and Huawei incidents have become a thing of the past, but they have always affected the present and the future. It has also made the 1.4 billion Chinese people feel the pain of a long-term lack of "core", and have begun to pay attention to the development of the domestic chip industry. Many companies even spend a lot of money on chips, not for making money, but for self-improvement and glory for the country.
As an ordinary person, we may not be able to invest in technology for this purpose, but we can learn more about chips and pay more attention to the status quo of domestic chips, which can be regarded as a way of support.
1. Although the chip is small, it has a great impact
Chip, also known as microcircuit, microchip and integrated circuit. Refers to a small silicon chip containing an integrated circuit, usually part of a computer or other electronic device. In fact, to be precise, a chip is a general term for semiconductor component products, a carrier of integrated circuits, and is divided into wafers.
To put it simply, the status of a chip to an electronic device is the same as that of an engine to a car. Without it, an electronic device is a toy that cannot accomplish anything.
Its earliest prototype was completed by Jack Kilby in 1958 and consisted of a bipolar transistor, three resistors and a capacitor. Later, Intel co-founder Robert Noyce wrote a plan for building an integrated circuit in January 1959 and started research and development; in July of the same year, he filed a patent application for a semiconductor device-connection structure.
The two combined the basic components in the circuit into a semiconductor silicon wafer, which has excellent computing and processing performance, not only can be mass-produced, but also the cost is very low. It can be said that Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce jointly developed and improved integrated circuits (chips). Unfortunately, Robert Noyce died young and regretted missing the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics.
2. Small chips are extremely difficult to manufacture
After a brief understanding of the origin of the chip, how is the chip made? It is unavoidable that the manufacturing of chips is extremely difficult, which is tantamount to building a city with everything on a small fingernail.
When you check the chip map online, you will find that the chips we see every day basically look like this:

But under the microscope, the myriad of details are astounding and dazzling. This is composed of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of transistors.

In order for these nanoscale components to be in their proper place, the chip must undergo hundreds of nanoscale transformations before it is put into use... The complete process of chip manufacturing includes chip design, wafer manufacturing, packaging manufacturing, cost testing, etc. A link, in which the wafer manufacturing process is particularly complex.
1. Create ground-based silicon wafers
The foundation of the chip is called a silicon wafer, and no matter what the circuit diagram is designed to be, it will eventually be superimposed on it. The initial appearance of a silicon wafer is the sand we are familiar with, adding carbon and converting it into silicon with a purity of about 99.9% under the action of high temperature. Then, in the silicon smelting stage, after melting, pencil-shaped silicon crystal pillars are pulled out. Then, a diamond knife cuts the silicon pillars into wafers, which are polished to form a silicon wafer, and the foundation of the chip is completed.
Common sizes of silicon wafers are 8 inches (200mm) and 12 inches (300mm). Among them, the larger the diameter, the lower the final cost of a single chip, but the more difficult it is to process.
It should be noted that although sand is common and cheap, it is extremely difficult to purify it. If there are impurities accidentally, it will inevitably affect the conductive function of the chip. How to describe this difficulty? I just want to give you a job to write millions of words on a strand of hair. Do you think it is difficult?
2. Photolithography
In the lithography stage, a mask is first required, that is, a photoresist is first applied to the silicon wafer, and then ultraviolet rays irradiate the photoresist through the mask, and a pre-designed circuit pattern is printed on the mask. The photoresist exposed to ultraviolet light during the photolithography process is dissolved, and the pattern left after removal is the same as that on the mask, and then the exposed part of the wafer is dissolved by chemical substances, and the remaining photoresist protects Parts that should not be etched. After the etching is completed, all the photoresist is removed to expose the grooves.
3. Doping
Through ion implantation, the characteristics of silicon transistors are given. Implant boron or phosphorous into the silicon structure, followed by copper filling to
The transistors are interconnected, and then another layer of glue can be applied on top to make another layer of structure. Generally, a chip contains dozens of layers of structure.
Like densely interwoven highways.
4. Packaging and testing
In the packaging and testing stage, after the chip is made, the chip is cut from the wafer with a fine cutter, welded to the substrate, and packaged and sealed. During packaging, the top layer is the heat sink, the middle is the core, that is, the core thing, and the bottom layer is the substrate. In this way, a sellable sandwich with a sense of technology is completed.
The above is the whole process of chip manufacturing. It does not seem to be difficult, but everyone thinks about how many thousands of transistors can be controlled on a chip the size of a fingernail. Do you think it is difficult?
Someone has to ask again, why are the chips getting smaller and smaller? This is because the smaller the transistors, the more transistors can be placed on the chip, and the higher the performance will be. Therefore, the evolution of chips is the process of making transistors smaller.
In addition, the smaller and smaller the chip, there are three advantages that cannot be ignored: First, it is more energy-saving, the smaller the transistor, the less the current travels through the transistor, which is more energy-saving and environmentally friendly. Second, the performance is improved, and the size of the chip remains the same. The smaller the transistor, the higher the performance of the transistor on the chip. Third, the cost becomes smaller. With the same piece of silicon, as the chips become smaller, more chips can be made than before, and more chips can be made, and it is also environmentally friendly.