First, the related concepts and classification of electronic components
1, concept
Electronic components: divided into semiconductor devices and electronic components, it is the foundation of the development of electronic industry, the basic unit of electronic equipment, and belongs to the intermediate products of electronic industry.
IC (Integrated Circuit) is a kind of semiconductor device in electronic components.
Microelectronics technology: The core technology of a country refers to microelectronics technology, which can handle smaller electromagnetic signals. The so-called micro-electricity is different from strong electricity (such as lighting electricity) and weak electricity (such as telephone lines). The representative of microelectronics technology is IC technology, and the main product is IC.
2. Classification
Electronic components are divided into two categories: semiconductor devices and electronic components.
Semiconductor devices include semiconductor discrete devices, semiconductor integrated circuits, semiconductor devices with special functions and other devices.
Electronic components include resistors, capacitors, inductors/coils, potentiometers, transformers, relays, sensors, crystals, switches, batteries/power supplies, connectors/connectors and other electronic components.
Second, the IC production process
Ordinary silica sand (quartz sand, river sand)-> molecular crystal pulling (refining)->; Crystal column (cylindrical crystal)->; Wafer (cutting the column into circular slices)->; Lithography (commonly known as streamer, that is, the circuit diagram is designed first and engraved on the circuit unit of the wafer through laser exposure)->-> die (bare die)->; Packaging (that is, connecting the circuit pins of the chip to external connectors with wires to connect with other devices. )
Detailed process notes:
1, it has been confirmed that 28% of the materials occupying the earth's crust appear in the form of quartz sand on the surface. Quartz sand is smelted by electric arc furnace and converted into metallurgical grade silicon. Through the process of removing impurities step by step, silicon is liquid, distilled and finally deposited into semiconductor-grade silicon rods, and the purity of silicon reaches 99.999%. Subsequently, these silicon rods were mechanically crushed into pieces and put into a timely crucible furnace to be heated and melted to 65438 0420 degrees Celsius.
2. A single crystal seed crystal (seed crystal) is introduced in the melting process, and the crystal grows gradually with the rotation of the seed crystal. A few days later, the single crystal was slowly extracted and a silicon rod more than one meter long was obtained. Depending on its diameter, the value of silicon rod may be as high as 8000 to 16000 dollars. Each of these pure silicon single crystal rods weighs (120kg);
3, and then cut into thin circular discs with a diamond sawing machine. These plates are washed, polished and cleaned, and are inspected by visual inspection and machine. Finally, surface defects and impurities smaller than the width of human hair 1/300 are found by laser scanning, and qualified circular wafers are delivered to chip manufacturers.
4. The chip structure designer designs the circuit layout, and the complete design drawings are transmitted to the host computer and processed by the electron beam exposure machine. These design drawings are "engraved" on a metal film placed on a timely glass to make a mask. Making a chip is a combination of repeated coating of photosensitive adhesive, lithography and etching on the film, and the mask plate plays a negative role much like photographic plate making. It is most important to align each mask accurately: if one mask deviates by a fraction of a micron (a millionth), the whole silicon wafer will be scrapped and unusable. When light passes through the mask, the circuit diagram is printed on the silicon wafer. Each chip needs about 20 masks, and these masks should be located in different positions in the whole process, including hundreds of processes from silicon wafer to final chip. Finally, a silicon wafer can make a certain number of chips.
Once the chip manufacturing process is completed, the silicon wafer is cut into individual chips on the diamond cutting machine, and the individual chips here are called "chips". Each chip is placed in an antistatic flat frame and transferred to the next step, in which the chip is inserted into its package. Chip packaging protects the die from environmental factors while providing the necessary electrical connection between the die and the circuit board. The packaged chip will be installed and fixed on the circuit board in subsequent use.