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

I wanted to get my hands dirty and I think your course sums up the whole experience from the ground up. You start by understanding how MOFETs work, get hands-on with Verilog and then all the way to the stage where you can be part of the ASIC shuttle.

Ameen Altajer