Crystal Growth and Wafer Preparation

Semiconductor device fabrication is the process used to create the integrated circuits that are present in everyday electrical and electronic devices. It is a multiple-step sequence of photolithographic and chemical processing steps during which electronic circuits are gradually created on a wafer made of pure semiconducting material. Silicon is almost always used, but various compound semiconductors are used for specialized applications. The entire manufacturing process, from start to packaged chips ready for shipment, takes six to eight weeks and is performed in highly specialized facilities referred to as fabs.
 

Semiconductor Timeline

1900's: The Vacuum Tube. 1905 First electronic diode vacuum tube is built by English physicist J. Ambrose Fleming, allowing the change of alternating current into a direct one-way signal.

1906 First electronic triode vacuum tube is built by American electrical engineer Lee DeForest, allowing signals to be controlled and amplified.Technology of electronics is born.

Late 1940's: The Transistor.

1947 the point-contact bipolar transistor is invented by Bell Lab's Bardeen, Shockley, and Brattain.

1951 Junction field-effect transistor (JFET) is invented.

1952 Single-crystal silicon is fabricated.

1954 Oxide masking process is developed.

Late 1950s: Key IC discoveries.

1958 First silicon integrated circuit is built by Texas Instrument's Jack Kirby.

1959 Planar process to distribute transistors on silicon, with passive oxide layers to protect junctions, is developed by Fairchild Semiconductor's Noyce and Moore. A modern version of this process is used today.

1960's: Small Scale Integration (SSI), up to 20 gates per chip.

1960 Metal-Oxide-Silicon (MOS) transistor is invented.

1962 Transistor-transistor Logic (TTL) is developed.

1963 Complementary Metal Oxide Silicon (CMOS) is invented.

Late 1960's: Medium Scale Integration (MSI), 20-200 gates per chip.

1968 MOS memory circuits are introduced.

1970's: Large Scale Integration (LSI), 200-5000 gates per chip.

1970 8-bit MOS calculator chips are introduced, 7 micrometer chip geometries.

1971 16-bit Microprocessors are introduced.

1980's: Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI), over 5000 gates per chip.

1981 Very High Speed Integration (VHSIC), tens's of thousands of gates per chip, 1.5 micrometer chip geometries.

1984 0.5 micrometer chip geometries.