how electronic components etc. are made

[PG1995]

Hi

Please keep your replies simple so you can be understood. Many thanks.

How are electronic components formed? Let me explain myself what I want to know. Let me start with a particular example. Please have a look on this schematic of op-amp. Before we make a certain component we have a rough idea what we need that component to do. But the journey from conception of an idea to realization of that idea is a real task. Going back to that schematic; Before we create a chip of a op-amp, we would have a rough idea what we want to do it. But how the heck one would know that combining transistors, resistors, and capacitors in such a weird way would give us the chip/component which would do what we wanted it to.

In case of invention of diode it would be have been little simple. Perhaps, someone though that what would happen if one uses elements which are neither metals nor purely non-metals. Then, someone played around a little bit with those elements and keep on improving what one had made. My question is not particularly about amplifiers etc. rather about all those complexly designed components. I hope you understand it.

Is it a trial and error method? There are many medicines which were not actually invented for the function they are now known for. Some of the examples I can think of offhand are: Minoxidil and Viagra. Some are completely accidental discoveries. The discovery of Penicillin was a quirk of nature.

When we make a 100-storey building, we know what to do. Use reinforced-concrete, steel, broad base, etc. Even before the invention of concrete, steel, etc. people knew how to make simple houses.

Link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendipity

Regards
PG

 

[KJ6EAD]

Please keep your replies simple so you can be understood.

How are electronic components formed?

Smart people had good ideas and worked hard to conquer the complexities.

 

[shortbus=]

There is nothing but smoke in those components. Don't believe me? Wire one up wrong and you will see the smoke come out!

 

[ronsimpson]

Smart-hard work, and some luck.

 

[Joe G]

i must of had a couple of bad componants, mine just make a snap and flew apart........

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

Let's take a very simple example of a network of resistors. Let's make our substrate of glass or ceramic.

There is a process called sputtering where you place a source in a chamber and you add Argon gas, some magnetics and you can make a plasma which essentially accelerates atoms of the sputtered material to the substrate. DC is used for metals such as Mo and RF can be used to sputter glass or transparent material such as (ITO) Indium Tin Oxide.

So, if we wanted a resistor, R = pl/a where p is the resistivity of the material, A is the cross sectional area and l is the length.
So, you need to find the dimensions that you need to make the resistor.

We can start by putting a layer of Mo down on the glass. Then you use a process called photolithography or x-ray lithography. You put a layer of photoresist on the device, expose it to UV light and etch. This is similar to how PC boards are made.
Now we have traces on the glass.

Now we can put down a layer of photoresist and expose just where the resistors go.

Now we deposit the resistors. We use photo resist again and remove everything but the resistor area.

We can then use a ultrasonic wire bonder to attach (usually gold wires). (I have used 0.001" diameter wires and a manual wire bonder) to the network and the external leads.

We can use probes to probe the circuit and laser trim the resistors to the proper value. We can then put a layer of encapsulation of it. Actually, the resistors can be trimmed AFTER passivation.

That's an idea of an IC on a large scale IC. You might find this sort of process use don a SIP network such as : https://www.electro-tech-online.com/custompdfs/2011/08/Type1776.pdf

I didn't really describe the making of an IC or how to make a transistor. I just covered interconnecting a simple component on a large IC like package.

In Eproms with a window, you can sometimes actually see the gold wires through the window.

 

[PICMICRO]

Nope, its all cumulative development. Start with Basic component, like a PN junction. Once they were amazed how briliant PN junction worked (as a one-way valve), they started thinking or experimenting what if two junction BJT. Then the Transistor was invented. They quickly learned how to use transistor as an amplifier. Then they started playing around with group of transistors and arranged and joined them in some funny patterns to do funny things. That may have led to differential amplifiers. They then arranged in other ways and got other things. They added capacitor and saw that they could make timing machines or oscillators. And they did this, they did that, whatever they did, they used previous knowledge and components to make even bigger. Now, that, someone as already made micro-controller chips, I can work from that and make robot. Now, that I make robot, some-one might work from that and make something else. Its not just the sheer intelligence of one person.
Hope that is along your line.

 

[OlPhart]

Some of you "kids" may have forgotten vacuum tubes. Amplifiers, logic and other circuits were done with them prior to "solid-state".

If I Recall Correctly:
The original quest for the transistor (by Bell Labs) was for what is now known as a MOSFET. They were trying to build a solid-state version of vacuum tube behavior. They simply didn't know how to build a junction that way; I think it was that the fully isolated gate by that thin a separation wasn't possible then.

While in pursuit, they got the bipolar junction type (and the Nobel Prize).

The Very first computers were vacuum tube circuits and relays. The origin of the term "bug" Was an insect stuck in the contacts of a relay.

To topic: vacuum tube are still in use, but their construction is Much more of an art than a process. Think of making the little ship, then glass-blowing the bottle around it.

TNX for suffering a fogey looking through the past foggily... <<<)))

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

Yep, I have some tube restorations to do, but just don't seem to have the time. I have more important issues to worry about.

I have a nice console AM/SW Magnavox that has to be re-capped and a small Zenith that has to be re-capped. Somewhere I have a "PORTABLE" tube radio. There is another radio that needs some work too. I also have two TV's that have channel one on the channel selector. One has a magnifying "BUBBLE" on it.

My father, way back when put a tube radio in the car with the power supply in the trunk.

Me, back in the 70's put a Blaupunkt tube radio in my car. The dial was in incresing wavelenght rather than frequency. I built a solid state vibrator for it. The vibrator was big in size. Back then, I barely knew what I was doing.

Tubes to SHUNT regulate a HV power supply 15 KV at 1.5 Amps is really wierd. That piece of equipment required 50 A, 3phase 208 VAC to operate. Another similar piece used a 70 A 3 phase 208 V to operate.

 

[crutschow]

......
How are electronic components formed? Let me explain myself what I want to know. Let me start with a particular example. Please have a look on this schematic of op-amp. Before we make a certain component we have a rough idea what we need that component to do. But the journey from conception of an idea to realization of that idea is a real task. Going back to that schematic; Before we create a chip of a op-amp, we would have a rough idea what we want to do it. But how the heck one would know that combining transistors, resistors, and capacitors in such a weird way would give us the chip/component which would do what we wanted it to.

In case of invention of diode it would be have been little simple. Perhaps, someone though that what would happen if one uses elements which are neither metals nor purely non-metals. Then, someone played around a little bit with those elements and keep on improving what one had made. My question is not particularly about amplifiers etc. rather about all those complexly designed components. I hope you understand it.

Is it a trial and error method? There are many medicines which were not actually invented for the function they are now known for. Some of the examples I can think of offhand are: Minoxidil and Viagra. Some are completely accidental discoveries. The discovery of Penicillin was a quirk of nature.

To design a complex circuit, such as an op amp, requires expert knowledge about how transistors work and the basics of circuit design. Then it's a matter of connecting the devices in a manner as to get the required circuit performance. Of course there is a lot of design iteration to eventually get to the final design. The circuit is simulated by a Spice type simulator to evaluate its performance before the IC is actually built.

The connections are not "weird" but are such as to give the desired circuit performance with the minimum number of parts and within the constraints of the particular IC fabrication process being used. For example in an IC process, transistors are easier to build then resistors and capacitors, so you try to minimize the use of passive components.

The initial invention of the diode involved a certain amount of accidental discovery, but before this was converted into the diodes and transistors we have today, much solid-state physics theory was developed to understand just how the devices actually worked so that the design and fabrication could be optimized. Without a thorough understanding of the underlying physics of the device, only rudimentary devices could ever be built.

There is only a small amount trial and error involved in all this. It is a deliberate design process based upon a thorough understanding of how the devices work and their functional properties.