How is the CPU manufactured?

Tram Ho

If you want to know how a CPU is made but are lazy to see too long and confusing posts, this is the one you are looking for.

In the era we live in, the era of semiconductor technology, CPUs are everywhere, from personal computers to smartphones, TVs and all the smart devices we use. It can be said that the CPU is one of the most important pieces in this era, helping people move to the future.

The following is a brief summary of the process of manufacturing a CPU chip.

  1. The CPU manufacturing process begins with refining pure silicon from sand.

2. This silicon part will be "cast" into cylindrical blocks called ingots.

3. The ingot blocks will be cut into round discs called wafer.

4. The wafer discs will be coated with a thin layer of contrast before coming to the next stage.

5. In this step, a UV beam will be used to "engrave" the "pattern" of the contrast layer on the wafer.

6. UV-blocking contrast will become less durable and more soluble. They will be removed with the next chemical treatment process, leaving only the non-UV contrast material.

7. The wafer disc will be illuminated again, areas not protected by contrast will be eroded. This is where the transistors are shaped.

8. After the above process, the wafer disk will be "fired" into the excited molecules to create electrical conductivity, usually phosphorus or boron.

9. Once shaped and conductive, the wafer disks undergo a series of other complex processes to form complete transistors.

10. The transistors are now complete, they will be connected together through countless metal micro circuits with a total length of up to hundreds of kilometers, connecting billions of transistors. together on each individual semiconductor substrate in the wafer.

11. A wafer will be cut into multiple die (die), corresponding to multiple CPUs.

12. The die will be mounted on a "chip base" of electrical power to help it connect to the socket on the motherboard. The CPU may work now, but it is still very fragile before physical influences.

13. In the final step, the CPU will be mounted with a "lid" called IHS ( I ntegrated H eat S preader) to protect the semi-conductor base and support heat dissipation. So the CPU is ready to go on sale.

CPUs in the same generation of architecture will usually have the same die manufactured, but in the manufacturing process, there will be good and bad. The good will be used to produce more advanced CPUs, the bad will be brought down to the cheaper CPU lines. For example, in the same generation of Coffe Lake Rerfesh architecture, all semiconductor cores on Coffe Lake Refresh CPUs will be produced in the same process with 8 CPU cores, iGPU and other components. After the dies are completed they are sorted – Binning .

Architectural diagram of die Coffe Lake Refresh

  • The most complete die with 8 CPU cores and iGPU that works smoothly with 2 stable processing threads each will be brought to the powerful Core i9 9900K chips with hyperthreading technology and overclocking capability.
  • The die with full 8 cores works perfectly and can overclock but iGPU is faulty will be removed GPU to become Core i9-9900KF.
  • 8-core die works well enough for 8 threads and can be overclocked to become i7-9700K, if this 8 core only meets the standard to reach the default clock speed, it will be locked. and became the i7-9700 (non-K).
  • If the die has 7 CPU cores working well and 1 core fails, it will be "removed" one more to only 6 cores and become an i5 core chip.
  • As such, the fewer cores that work well, the more die will be brought to cheaper CPUs like the Core i3.

Above is a quick summary of the CPU production process, hoping to bring you interesting information.

TechTalk via GEARVN (Axium Fox)

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Source : Techtalk