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Free online course

Semiconductor Fabrication: From Sand to Chip

An introduction to how chips are made, in eleven modules. It is written for the public, for community college and workforce learners, and for university students.

About this course

The course follows a silicon wafer from raw sand to a finished, packaged chip. It needs no earlier course in physics or electronics, and each module can be read in under an hour. Every module is free to read and needs no registration.

The course is the theory companion to the hands-on resources on our Training page, which include online laboratory modules, a photolithography simulation, and a virtual tour of a cleanroom.

How each module is organized

  • In plain language. A short explanation with no math, for any reader
  • Core lesson. The main text, with a figure and the essential facts and numbers
  • Going deeper. Sections that open on a click, with the equations and a worked example each
  • Check your understanding. Five questions with answers that open on a click
  • Key terms and careers. Short definitions and a note on who uses this step in a fab

Three ways to take the course

Choose the path that fits your background. You can change paths at any module.
PathWritten forWhat to read
ShortThe public, teachers, and anyone curiousThe plain-language section of every module
StandardCommunity college students and workforce learnersThe plain-language section, the core lesson, and the questions
FullUniversity studentsEverything, including the Going deeper sections

Modules

  1. Semiconductors and the Transistor. What a semiconductor is, how doping works, and how a MOS transistor switches.
  2. From Sand to Wafer. How silicon is purified, grown as a single crystal, and made into polished wafers.
  3. The Cleanroom and Contamination Control. Why contamination matters, how cleanrooms work, and how defects set yield.
  4. Lithography. How patterns are printed with light, what limits resolution, and how EUV extends it.
  5. Oxidation and Dielectrics. How silicon dioxide is grown and why high-k insulators replaced the gate oxide.
  6. Doping by Diffusion and Ion Implantation. How dopants are placed by diffusion and ion implantation and activated by annealing.
  7. Etching. Wet and plasma etching, selectivity, and how plasmas cut vertical features.
  8. Thin-Film Deposition. Physical and chemical vapor deposition, epitaxy, and atomic layer deposition.
  9. Interconnects and Packaging. Contacts, copper wiring, polishing, reliability, and chip packaging.
  10. A Complete CMOS Process. How the individual steps combine into one process flow, from wafer to packaged chip.
  11. Beyond Silicon. Wide-bandgap, two-dimensional, and carbon-based materials, including graphene nanoribbons.

Glossary

All key terms from the eleven modules are collected in the course glossary.

Credits and further reading

The course was created by Prof. Zafer Mutlu, ANNLab, University of Arizona. The text and the figures are original. Corrections and suggestions are welcome at zmutlu@arizona.edu.

For a full university textbook on this subject, we recommend J. D. Plummer and P. B. Griffin, Integrated Circuit Fabrication: Science and Technology, Cambridge University Press. The authors offer a prepublication version that is free to read on the Stanford book site.

Start with Module 1