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I'm a rookie in semiconductors and chip fabrication, but I've been thinking a lot about benchtop semiconductor fabrication. Was trying to find projects that have tried to do similar things and came across Minifab: https://www.semimedia.cc/?p=7972

It seems like some steps can be bypassed when focusing on prototyping one chip vs many.

This is an open ended/vague question, but what are the engineering constraints to building something like this?

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    \$\begingroup\$ The constraints are probably not electrical but more mechanical, chemical and physics based. \$\endgroup\$
    – Kartman
    Aug 6 at 0:40
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    \$\begingroup\$ There are some folks who have been able to just make crude ca. 1970s chips in a home/garage type environment. Think 5-10um. The chemicals are not friendly and there are a lot of processes. Making a diode should not be difficult, given commercial silicon. Personally, I don’t see the motivation, and it would take a lot of motivation to assemble that amount of equipment and acquire at least the minimum skills to operate it. \$\endgroup\$
    – Spehro Pefhany
    Aug 6 at 1:20
  • \$\begingroup\$ See electronics.stackexchange.com/a/67604/11683 \$\endgroup\$
    – Dave Tweed
    Aug 6 at 1:59
  • \$\begingroup\$ @SpehroPefhany Sam Zeloof also has the benefit of a seemingly unlimited budget to buy [expensive] new and surplus equipment. I agree with the other commenters, not worth the trouble/cost/etc. \$\endgroup\$
    – Brendan Simpson
    Aug 6 at 2:17
  • \$\begingroup\$ When I was very young, sam, I bought this kit. Since that time, I did make/acquire-pieces for a quartz lamp-heated chamber that I had nickel plated and I could easily reach 1500 C on a 76.2 mm wafer inside it. Water cooled system. But no gases except for the argon or dry nitrogen used to fill the chamber during testing. (Believe me when I say that 20% Oxygen at standard pressure is very bad on Si wafers [or anything else] at 1500 C.) The gases are dangerous: silane, phosphine, and arsine are all nasty in their own ways. \$\endgroup\$
    – jonk
    Aug 6 at 3:28

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