[HN Gopher] The Semiconductor Industry's Most Important Tool Goe...
___________________________________________________________________
The Semiconductor Industry's Most Important Tool Goes Green
Author : mfiguiere
Score : 82 points
Date : 2023-06-12 22:31 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (spectrum.ieee.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (spectrum.ieee.org)
| hinkley wrote:
| The lede:
|
| Edwards' hydrogen recovery system is "similar to a fuel cell, in
| reverse," says Keen. After mixing the gas with a bit of moisture
| and nitrogen, the hydrogen is ionized, and an electric field
| forces the resulting ions through a proton-exchange membrane. On
| the other side of the membrane the protons recombine with
| electrons to form pure hydrogen. And a final purification step
| removes any water that migrated through the membrane. All the
| contaminants remain on the other side of the cell where they can
| be collected and disposed of.
|
| So they're using a membrane meant for fuel cells as a filter and
| electrolyzing the gas through it. Not bad.
|
| I was expecting a distillation process where they settle
| everything else out and get chilled hydrogen gas at the end. With
| the amount of cooling equipment already on site I figured that
| would be the easiest.
| DHaldane wrote:
| The article doesn't go into much detail on this, but the UV
| source using the hydrogen here is incredibly cool.
|
| To get the 13.5nm light they need, they use a 20kW CO2 laser to
| explode tin droplets into plasma that emits the correct
| wavelength. 50,000 droplets per second. And they use a smaller
| laser to first shape the droplet into a little dish shape that
| explodes better.
|
| Shown better in a video - https://youtu.be/5Ge2RcvDlgw?t=648
| rhinoceraptor wrote:
| LTT also did a facility tour at ASML a few weeks ago:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfU20SAR21A
| Nickels2102 wrote:
| ASML (or as the news once called them "an obscure Dutch
| firm") is the magic behind our most cutting edge technology,
| they make the machines that make the chips in all of the most
| advanced technology. If this AI boom is like the gold rush,
| and GPU makers are the guys selling the shovel to the gold
| miners, well ASML is the guy making the shovel making machine
| to sell to GPU makers. They're also at least partially
| responsible for the massive chip shortage we have been going
| through.
|
| ASML was expecting to get their newest technology figured out
| and sold to chip manufacturers, but ran into some unexpected
| hurdles and it was delayed. Those chip makers had been
| expecting this new tech, and so were their customers, and now
| had to alter their plans to use "not the latest and greatest
| chips" but rather the next best thing they could get their
| hands on. Now all those devices that wanted the new chips
| have to fight over the ones that are already existing, and
| meanwhile COVID causes tech needs to skyrocket (honestly,
| just Chromebooks for schools alone were a massive amount)
| while also screwing up shipping, and Crypto is obviously
| still all the rage. So massive demand spike combined with a
| lower supply, leads to a huge shortage and price spike for
| devices with chips.
| ChuckNorris89 wrote:
| Not to steal your thunder, but the secret sauce to ASMLs
| success, the EUV tech, was developed by Sandia Labs USA and
| ASML bought the license to use it, and the other secret
| sauce, the insanely tricky EUV light source is developed
| and built by Cymer USA which ASML also bought. So, pretty
| sure the US deserves at least an honorable mention here for
| inventing and building the tech ASML packages and sells.
| Nickels2102 wrote:
| No, I totally understand, I'm not trying to say the
| modern world was entirely invented by the Dutch, most
| successful companies have bought at least some of the
| tech they now use. I just think that 99% of the world has
| no idea that ASML exists, and yet it's so incredibly
| crucial.
|
| I included that bit about them being Dutch because, one
| of my best friends works for ASML on the east coast, and
| apparently ASML finds that news quote funny enough that
| they have some shirts and swag with that quote on it.
| User23 wrote:
| And for that and possibly other reasons the USA controls
| where the technology can be exported. That said it's not
| like you just buy the lithography machine and some
| technicians and now you're competing on par with TSMC.
| There is serious additional engineering to use the
| machines in a fab.
| renewiltord wrote:
| ASML posts are the Speed Check stories of lithography.
| Everyone constantly brings them up here, dear god.
|
| There we were, kings of light, floating in our clean rooms,
| positive pressure or vacuum sealed as we desired, not a
| mote of dust in the air. There were a lot of things we
| couldn't do, but we had the tightest process node and we
| loved reminding our fellow photolithographers of this fact.
|
| I wouldn't use the word 'fun' to describe what we're doing.
| Intense, maybe. Even cerebral. But there was one day when
| it was pure fun.
|
| Peter and I were finalizing tape-out and needed another few
| hours, but somewhere in Amsterdam soon we'd made it. The
| machine was performing flawlessly and yield was good. I was
| feeling a bit sorry for Peter, since he handles sales and
| misses all the fun of EUV lithography. Just to get a sense
| of what he had to contend with I pulled his calendar and
| got on the conference call for a vendor comparison.
|
| A shaky Canon salesperson got on the call and volunteered
| their best process size: "Canon can do a 20 nm process
| node, I think". The thing you have to remember about the
| TSMC guys is that they're pros and always speak in this
| professional voice that I like to call the Hsinchu Voice.
| "Copy that, Canon. We can put you in the Fiats and
| Citroens". Anyway, moments later pops in this Nikon guy,
| with theirs: "We, Nikon that is, can do an 18 nm". Boy, he
| must think he's really dazzling his camera-business friend.
|
| But then, on came the Lam Research guy and you knew these
| guys were good because he was cool as a cucumber. Drops in,
| 4 words, and he knew he was in the game: "Lam Research, 12
| nm". I'm thinking to myself that this is a ripe situation,
| but Peter ran the call on our side, and I had to remind
| myself not to undermine him. Still, that Lam guy had to
| die, and die now! My inner techbro was screaming against my
| corporate persona. Then I saw Peter reach forward and hit
| the unmute button. That's when I knew we were really a
| team.
|
| "TSMC, how's our process doing?". Cool as ever came back
| TSMC's response in that Hsinchu calm: "We've got great
| yields at 5 nm, maybe considering going a nm lower?" You
| could tell TSMC was proud reading out those numbers. But
| what made it certain we'd be lifelong friends is when Peter
| in his best photolithographer's voice said "Ah, TSMC, much
| thanks, I think we can do 3 nm this time".
|
| For a moment, Peter was a god. Lam had been flamed. All
| lithographers had been forced to bow before the king of
| angstroms. A fine day's work. For once, it was fun.
| sproketboy wrote:
| [dead]
| krisoft wrote:
| I feel very craft every time I do some sand casting, or maybe
| etch a two sided PCB. But compared to an EUV lithography system
| these crafts are like banging rocks together.
|
| It is incredible that humans designed and operate systems of this
| complexity.
| B1FF_PSUVM wrote:
| > systems of this complexity
|
| I'm amazed that any of this stuff works for more than a couple
| of minutes at a time, or at all.
|
| I mean, if you think of items with 99.9999% reliability, and do
| the math for a whole chain of them ...
| civilitty wrote:
| Banging rocks together is the first step in precision
| manufacturing! You take three rocks and start scraping a
| designated surface on each of them together until they're all
| flat.
|
| That gives you your first flat reference surface against which
| the rest of your civilization will be built! :)
| xhkkffbf wrote:
| I don't think most people understand just how fine the
| precision happens to be. All that hard work just so people can
| laugh at memes as quickly as possible.
| ChatGTP wrote:
| It's mostly about watching "moar porn" and selling ads.
| choilive wrote:
| We truly live in an age of wonders
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2023-06-13 23:03 UTC)