Microchips are devices that contain microscopic circuitry and are used in a variety of electronic devices. They are made from a variety of materials, including silicon, germanium, and gallium arsenide. Microchips can be as small as a few square micrometers or as large as several square centimeters.
The first microchips were created in the early 1950s by engineers working on the development of integrated circuits. The first microchips were made from germanium and had just a few transistors. By the early 1960s, silicon-based microchips with hundreds of transistors were being manufactured commercially. In 1968, Intel Corporation introduced the first commercial microprocessor, which contained about 4500 transistors on a single chip.
Today, microchips are an essential component of many electronic devices, including computers, cell phones, and automobiles. They are also used in medical devices such as pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs). Microchips typically consist of millions of transistors arranged in a complex network on a single piece of silicon. The size and complexity of microchips have increased dramatically over the past few decades due to advances in semiconductor technology.
The manufacturing process formicrochips begins with creating patterns on a wafer that will form the features oftransistors and other circuit elements. This process is called photolithographyand uses ultraviolet light to create patterns on the surface of the wafer. Next,the wafer is etched to remove material not covered by the patterned photoresist(a light-sensitive material used to protect areas during etching). This stepleaves behind only the desired circuit features on the surface of the wafer. Finally,the wafer undergoes a series of steps to add impurities (called dopants) that modifysilicon’s electrical properties and creates active regions for transistor action.(These steps are called diffusion and ion implantation.) Once this process iscomplete, interconnected metal wires are added to connect different parts oft he circuit together; finally, another layer of photoresist is applied and curedto protect these newly deposited metals during subsequent processing steps.. Afterall these processes are complete , individual chips are cut or “singulated”fromthe wafer .