Semiconductor fabrication

Okay, kiddo, do you know what a computer is? It's like magic machine that helps us do all kinds of things like watching videos, playing games, and talking to people far away. But have you ever wondered how this computer is made?

Well, the computer has a tiny tiny brain inside it, and we call it a microchip or a semiconductor. This little chip is made of a special kind of material called a semiconductor material, usually silicon.

Now, making these tiny chips is not easy, it's a very complex process! But I will try to explain it to you in a simple way.

First, we start with a really thin slice of silicon called a wafer. The wafer is cleaned and polished until it's very smooth. Then we cover it with a special light-sensitive material called a photoresist.

Next, we use a special machine called a stepper to shine a light on the wafer. This light will create a pattern on the photoresist, like a stencil or a coloring book. The pattern is a tiny map of where we want the chip to have circuits and where we want it to be empty.

After that, we use chemicals to etch away the parts of the wafer that are not covered by the photoresist. This will leave us with tiny trenches and spaces on the wafer, that will later become the circuits and transistors of the chip.

We repeat this process of shining light, adding photoresist, and etching away parts of the wafer, many times until we build up many layers of circuits and transistors.

Then, we add all the other parts of the chip such as wires, and we test it to make sure it works properly.

Finally, we cut the wafer into many tiny chips and package them into computers, phones or any other electronic device you use.

And that's how we make the little chips that run your favorite devices!