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Comment by chongli | Hacker News Reader

This is so cool! Questions for engineers:

How much work would it take to go from this process to producing a working chip in his garage, like a 6502 or something? Would it be at all feasible? He did point out a ton of defects in the final product, probably due to dust or scratches in his equipment/materials. Would it be possible to clean this up enough to get 1-2 usable chips from a single sheet of 4x5 film? Without turning his garage into a clean room?

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Sam Zeloof (also on YouTube) has already done it! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7E8-0Ou69hwScPW1_fQApA Check out all of his amazing work.

Here is a blog on home IC production: http://sam.zeloof.xyz/first-ic/

Having done some work in a university lab, I have no desire to be involved in silicon work in a home environment. It requires dangerous chemicals, and lots of equipment and dedication.

A short list of what I remember: - Spin coater - Some solution of exposure of masks - Various chemical baths (HH, piranha, etc) in a dedicated area. - Inspection microscope - Tube oven - Vapor deposition - A way to measure film thickness

I wonder if at some point we'll develop new materials and techniques that make it easier to do this, with safer chemicals and less equipment. It may seem far-fetched but you never know. When I was a kid I would've thought it pretty far-fetched that people could 3D print ventilator valves at home that are actually saving lives during a pandemic.

I can't answer most of this since I don't know, but the first 6502 was fabricated at 8 microns. I wonder if a chip made at 15-20 microns would work just as well?

I don't see why not it wouldn't work, assuming you got the process right and produced them in a clean enough environment. Yields would probably be lower than that of a professional foundary during the 60s or 70s that was processing at the same feature size. Performance of your DIY 6502 would probably be lower as well -- requiring more power and producing more waste heat to run at a lower clock rate than that of an original.

So would it work? Possibly. Work as well? Less likely.

All IMO, of course.

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