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Discussion (7 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews
One day of processing would be possible only for semi-custom integrated circuits, like gate arrays, which have already been fabricated until a last step that only adds one or two custom metal layers to interconnect the existing components and then separates and packages the devices.
Even with that, one day of processing would be possible only for making a small number of chips, where the metal layers would be patterned without masks, by direct exposure of the photoresist with a laser projector. Making photolithography masks would take more than one day.
These are available since about a decade, and would enable such short turnaround times for single chips.
Even an ancient 1 micron CMOS process requires something like one hundred process steps, many of which may need up to a few hours in an oven. If completely automatized, it could be done in a week for small batches, but not in a day.
One day could be achieved only for semi-custom integrated circuits, where the customer only specifies the interconnection of the components existing on the pre-processed chip.
Decades ago, when unlike today, there were a very great number of integrated circuit producers, there were many who offered a set of IC dies from which to choose one, where each variant could have different sizes, while including various mixtures of digital gates and analog components like amplifiers, comparators, voltage references etc., and after choosing one of the available base dies the customer would specify only how to interconnect the components and how to bond the die to the package pads.
With such semi-custom integrated circuits, it would be possible to complete their fabrication process in a day, by using direct exposure, instead of masks, for the final metal layers.
At the 1 micron level, the photoresist can be patterned directly with a laser projector. There is no need for an electron-beam machine, like for nanometer-resolution lithography.
That depends on the used substrate, they don't only have the ones which are in common use. They also don't need masks for anything, and their wafers are small. It's all a little hard to get, and the most current information is their Japanese site, with translation.
Have you looked deeper at theirs, or 'similar' stuff? I think it's misleading trying to extrapolate from an ancient process to this, 'or similar', because the roads taken by the mainstream(machinery and processing) do not necessarily apply to other roads, which others may have taken. And I don't mean by circumventing physics. Just applying them differently. For different volumes and scales.