Silicon is purified to around 99.9999999%! Then it is sliced into very thin round sheets called wafers.

The type used in the Skywater 130nm process is doped to become p-type.

Here’s a great video about how silicon wafers are made.

And these great videos are about the birth of the Japanese semiconductor industry. Jump to about 12 minutes in to see how they pull the silicon ingot out of the molten material.

After the wafers are ready, they can be patterned using the photolithographic process, using a series of masks.

Course feedback

This course was very intuitive and had many resources for when I got stuck. The content is broken down into several sections that are easy to digest for all levels of expertise. The Discord channel and weekly calls are where I can ask questions and stay up to date with what is happening in the community. I am very glad to be a part of it and have submitted digital and mixed-signal designs.

Brandon Ramos (analog course)