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HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY, TECHNOLOGY, OBJECTS AROUND US
Integrated circuit. History of invention and production
Directory / The history of technology, technology, objects around us Integrated (micro) circuit (IC, IC, m / s, English integrated circuit, IC, microcircuit), chip, microchip (English microchip, silicon chip, chip - a thin plate - the term originally referred to a plate of a microcircuit crystal) - microelectronic device - an electronic circuit of arbitrary complexity (crystal), made on a semiconductor substrate (plate or film) and placed in a non-separable case, or without it, if included in the microassembly.
Microelectronics is the most significant and, as many believe, the most important scientific and technological achievement of our time. It can be compared with such turning points in the history of technology as the invention of printing in the XNUMXth century, the creation of the steam engine in the XNUMXth century, and the development of electrical engineering in the XNUMXth. And when today it comes to the scientific and technological revolution, it is primarily microelectronics that is meant. Like no other technical achievement of our days, it permeates all spheres of life and makes a reality what was simply impossible to imagine yesterday. To be convinced of this, it suffices to think of pocket calculators, miniature radios, electronic controls in household appliances, clocks, computers, and programmable computers. And this is only a small part of its scope! Microelectronics owes its origin and very existence to the creation of a new subminiature electronic element - an integrated microcircuit. The appearance of these circuits, in fact, was not some kind of fundamentally new invention - it directly followed from the logic of the development of semiconductor devices. At first, when semiconductor elements were just entering life, each transistor, resistor or diode was used separately, that is, it was enclosed in its own individual case and included in the circuit using its individual contacts. This was done even in those cases when it was necessary to assemble many similar circuits from the same elements. Gradually, the understanding came that it was more rational not to assemble such devices from separate elements, but to immediately manufacture them on one common chip, especially since semiconductor electronics created all the prerequisites for this. In fact, all semiconductor elements are very similar in their structure to each other, have the same principle of operation and differ only in the mutual arrangement of pn regions. These pn regions, as we remember, are created by introducing impurities of the same type into the surface layer of a semiconductor crystal. Moreover, reliable and from all points of view, satisfactory operation of the vast majority of semiconductor elements is provided with a thickness of the surface working layer of thousandths of a millimeter. The smallest transistors usually use only the top layer of a semiconductor crystal, which is only 1% of its thickness. The remaining 99% act as a carrier or substrate, since without a substrate, the transistor could simply collapse at the slightest touch. Therefore, using the technology used to manufacture individual electronic components, it is possible to immediately create a complete circuit from several tens, hundreds and even thousands of such components on a single chip. The benefit from this will be huge. Firstly, costs will immediately decrease (the cost of a microcircuit is usually hundreds of times less than the total cost of all the electronic elements of its components). Secondly, such a device will be much more reliable (as experience shows, thousands and tens of thousands of times), and this is of tremendous importance, since troubleshooting in a circuit of tens or hundreds of thousands of electronic components becomes an extremely difficult problem. Thirdly, due to the fact that all electronic elements of an integrated circuit are hundreds and thousands of times smaller than their counterparts in a conventional combined circuit, their power consumption is much less, and their speed is much higher. The key event that heralded the arrival of integration in electronics was the proposal of the American engineer J. Kilby from Texas Instruments to obtain equivalent elements for the entire circuit, such as registers, capacitors, transistors and diodes in a monolithic piece of pure silicon. Kilby created the first integrated semiconductor circuit in the summer of 1958. And already in 1961, the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation produced the first serial microcircuits for computers: a coincidence circuit, a semi-shift register and a flip-flop. In the same year, the production of semiconductor integrated logic circuits was mastered by Texas. The following year, integrated circuits from other firms appeared. In a short time, various types of amplifiers were created in integrated design. In 1962, RCA developed memory array integrated circuits for computer storage devices. Gradually, the production of microcircuits was established in all countries - the era of microelectronics began. The starting material for an integrated circuit is usually a raw silicon wafer. It has a relatively large size, since several hundred of the same type of microcircuits are simultaneously manufactured on it at once. The first operation is that under the influence of oxygen at a temperature of 1000 degrees, a layer of silicon dioxide is formed on the surface of this plate. Silicon oxide is characterized by great chemical and mechanical resistance and has the properties of an excellent dielectric, providing reliable insulation to the silicon located under it. The next step is the introduction of impurities to create p or n conduction zones. To do this, the oxide film is removed from those places on the plate that correspond to individual electronic components. The selection of the desired areas occurs using a process called photolithography. First, the entire oxide layer is covered with a light-sensitive compound (photoresist), which plays the role of a photographic film - it can be illuminated and developed. After that, through a special photomask containing a surface pattern of a semiconductor crystal, the plate is illuminated with ultraviolet rays. Under the influence of light, a flat pattern is formed on the oxide layer, with the non-illuminated areas remaining light, and all the rest - darkened. In the place where the photoresistor has been exposed to light, insoluble areas of the film are formed that are resistant to acid. The wafer is then treated with a solvent that removes the photoresist from the exposed areas. From the open places (and only from them), the layer of silicon oxide is etched with acid. As a result, silicon oxide dissolves in the right places and "windows" of pure silicon open, ready for the introduction of impurities (ligation). To do this, the surface of the substrate at a temperature of 900-1200 degrees is exposed to the desired impurity, for example, phosphorus or arsenic, to obtain n-type conductivity. Impurity atoms penetrate deep into pure silicon, but are repelled by its oxide. Having processed the plate with one type of impurity, it is prepared for ligation with another type - the surface of the plate is again covered with an oxide layer, a new photolithography and etching are carried out, as a result of which new "windows" of silicon open. This is followed by a new ligation, for example with boron, to obtain p-type conductivity. Thus, p and n regions are formed in the right places on the entire surface of the crystal. Insulation between individual elements can be created in several ways: a layer of silicon oxide can serve as such insulation, or blocking pn junctions can also be created in the right places. The next stage of processing is associated with the application of conductive connections (conductive lines) between the elements of the integrated circuit, as well as between these elements and contacts for connecting external circuits. To do this, a thin layer of aluminum is deposited on the substrate, which is deposited in the form of a very thin film. It is subjected to photolithographic processing and etching, similar to those described above. As a result, only thin conductive lines and pads remain from the entire metal layer. Finally, the entire surface of the semiconductor crystal is covered with a protective layer (most often, silicate glass), which is then removed from the pads. All manufactured microcircuits are subjected to the strictest checks on the control and test stand. Defective circuits are marked with a red dot. Finally, the crystal is cut into separate microcircuit plates, each of which is enclosed in a robust case with leads for connection to external circuits. The complexity of an integrated circuit is characterized by an indicator called the degree of integration. Integrated circuits with more than 100 elements are called microcircuits with a low degree of integration; circuits containing up to 1000 elements - integrated circuits with an average degree of integration; circuits containing up to tens of thousands of elements - large integrated circuits. Circuits containing up to a million elements are already being made (they are called super-large). The gradual increase in integration has led to the fact that every year the circuits become more and more miniature and, accordingly, more and more complex. A huge number of electronic devices that used to have large dimensions now fit on a tiny silicon plate. An extremely important event along this path was the creation in 1971 by the American firm Intel of a single integrated circuit for performing arithmetic and logical operations - a microprocessor. This led to a grandiose breakthrough of microelectronics in the field of computer technology. Author: Ryzhov K.V.
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