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Uncovering the Silicon: Demystifying How Chips are Built and How They Work
Windell Oskay walks us through the process of understanding what an Integrated Circuit looks like, and how it operates.
This booth at the 2019 Maker Faire Bay Area started by decapping a uL914 chip and looking at it under a microscope. From there, models were designed to explain the structure in a way that's really easy to follow.
Read the article on Hackaday:
hackaday.com/2...
Learn more about this exhibit:
www.evilmadsci...
Пікірлер: 428
incredibly slick presentation considering he gave it in real time
@ahmetyusufsalim
5 жыл бұрын
why is that exactly?
@rogerducrin
5 жыл бұрын
@@ahmetyusufsalim Because he has little hesitation and smooth, consistent data flow, complete with model demonstration and explanation.
@abseiduk
2 жыл бұрын
Old school presentation. Ironic given the subject.
@erikshure360
2 жыл бұрын
I would think that he gives this speech a lot.
@cianmullins1254
Жыл бұрын
Nerds are fluent in nerd speak
Never thought of such an approach to understand ICs. This is amazing! This model needs to be in every school and university :-)
@nagualdesign
5 жыл бұрын
^ Exactly what I was going to write. :-)
@MsHojat
5 жыл бұрын
It could be done quite effectively in a 3D program as well; namely VR for the easier interactivity of it.
@feha92
5 жыл бұрын
@@MsHojat Thats actually a good idea, such a simulation could also have visual elements to highlight stuff too, and I don't mean just components being highlighted from context in description, but also stuff like where there is current and how it travels when the user tries sending stuff into the inputs.
That acrylic demonstration with the labeled Over is without a doubt the best example of how a transistor works! THANK YOU SO MUCH !!! This video is so helpful you will never know how helpful this was. Great video.
@sbinsdca
2 ай бұрын
I think they know and it was the reason it was created
Why couldn't I have these explanations/aids in college? Things would have been SO much easier. Great job man! Now do a 2-input NAND with a different metal overlay :)
@dadygee
5 жыл бұрын
Normal youtube comment would be "you dont want aids in college nerd... hehehe..." but I was thinking the same thing... i´ll see myselfe out.
Exceptional video. Very dense with information yet clear. I can't believe it was only 5 minutes long. Most impressive, well done
I love that people like this exist and are willing to prepare materials and lessons like this, SO GREAT!
@BionicRusty
Жыл бұрын
Absolutely.
This is literally the perfect explanation. When I'm at university, this detail of explanation is nowhere to be seen. In my data logging module, we are taught that "programming language is x, y or z, computers understand binary and microprocessors are simply ""and"" or ""or"" gates". Showing everyone this video is that crucial link between the theory and the practical. Well done, amazing video.
Dude, this video is so super-duper cool. I have been a electro-techie for over 50 years and wish I could have seen this video in the early 70s. Never too late, eh? Thanks a million !
This is very nice. I did a reverse engineer on a chip and we had the advantage that we had photographs of each layer of the chip. Its done by putting the chip in various acid baths and watching through a microscope to see if the top layer has been removed, then photograph it, then repeat. You end up with a series of transparencies of each layer, then you can lift off layers to see underneath. I think the difference now is this is all digitized and you do that on a screen. Its fun, and you learn a lot about ICs that way.
Very nice job. I do failure analysis on IC's, so I decap them daily. Next time I have to explain what I do, I will reference this video.
Brilliant. Possibly the best demonstration of an IC ever. Seeing it as a big 3D model really helps to understand it spatially.
Changing between images, shapes and diagrams gave a incredible depth in the explanation. Amazing!
I have been looking for visualization like this for years, RESPECT!!!
I love the acrylic model... I'd like to see one of everybody's favourite the 555
@maximosh
5 жыл бұрын
The 555 probably has too many components to get a quick and simple grasp of basic chip construction. It's a very useful chip though.
@RonLaws
5 жыл бұрын
@@maximosh Actually no, it's surprisingly simple. there's maker kits you can get of it that are jumbo IC (shaped) PCBs with nothing but discrete components. kzread.info/dash/bejne/lZWd1a17fMjZo6g.html
@stefano.a
3 жыл бұрын
@@RonLaws it is not at the same magnify factor of the acrylic model of not gates. There are too many components
This is one of the easiest understand presentations I’ve seen on the construction of integrated circuits.
I mean this is one of the best videos out of all the videoa that i have seen on youtube
I've been always searching for this kind of explanation on how ICs actually look in reality, but I never achieved to find this until now. Thank you! I hope you'll explain more of those basic ICs and then move over to some more complicated ones.
EFFIN INCREDIBLE , Why don't they teach like this in schools. I'm almost 60 years old and can't thank him enough for making it so easy and concise. Thank you sir
@olmostgudinaf8100
7 ай бұрын
I grew up behind the Iron Curtain and studied electronics. I'm not sure whether it is due to the place I grew up or whether my teacher was exceptionally good, but this is almost exactly how I learned how chips are made.
The best explanation I've seen about this. OMG. Makes me want to print my own chips now!!
What an amazing video!!! I think everyone on earth should be required to watch this and learn it. I've been working with electronics for about 15 years. I love it so much for many reasons. The most important of which, is that I always learn something new. No matter how much you think you know, something comes along to show you that you don't know as much as you thought you did. Lol. Superb demonstration sir!
Brilliant brilliant. Please do this for more circuits
@sbinsdca
2 ай бұрын
Do enough and we could have a circuit party
Thank you for such a great video, need more of these. There is tons of effort that has gone behind the scene and all of that was presented brilliantly!!
For me this is a super complex subject yet he explained it effortlessly with great clarity. Wow!
Sir, you are a hero... such a clear presentation, I love it!
This is one of the best videos on youtube period I always wondered how we've managed to miniaturise such complex circuitry into tiny ICs. Thanks!
Massive respect for making all those presentation formats just to explain a simple circuit! 💯
Great video! I've never really been able to understand how silicon dice were built, but this gave me a good idea of how it works.
Incredibly simplified. Brilliant man at explaining these subject matter. Superb.
This was one of the coolest electronics videos I’ve seen in a while! Amazing presentation.
This has immense educational value! 👍👍👍👍👍👍
Great work, I want one of those models
@dadygee
5 жыл бұрын
plexi+glue gun + saw +time = profit
@dadygee
5 жыл бұрын
*starts knitting in swedish*
This is an amazing video. It shows concretely how transistors physically work to form the logic gates that are used for calculations.
This is such an amazing project, literally the most helpful explanation I've ever come across.
This 3d plastic model is a next level breakdown.
This is awesome. I was wondering how these things functioned. It’s incredible how small these are
So, have you found the exact same chip but with different metal layer that uses the unused elements yet? The leftover parts can be used by wiring up a different metal layer and you can create the uL900 (buffer) and a dual version as well. Also the uL915 (Dual 3-input NOR) In fact, it looks like a lot of the RTL series from Fairchild could have been realized by the same chip with different metallic layers, keeping a lot of the process the same.
@jackdaniels8898
2 жыл бұрын
Thanks! I was wondering why there seem to be resistors sitting there not connected to anything. Thank you so much for the explanation. It makes such great sense that you could make, I wouldn’t call it a universal chip, but you could certainly make a chip that could be turned into a couple of different final chips based upon the metal layer.
@sbinsdca
2 ай бұрын
What he said 🤯
Words cannot describe how educational this video is. Thank you. Semper Fi, USMC.
@saotome77
3 жыл бұрын
You should learn more words. Some are quite useful - But I agree, it's exceptionally educational.
You are awesome After twenty years, I finally understood how it actually works!!!
If it werent for the yt algorithm, I wouldnt have seen this gem. Very concise and crear!
Thanks for putting this much effort to educate unknowns , I gained something from this ,tanx a lot.
This is what makes electronics interesting! Not dry curriculum notes delivered in a monotone voice. I worked in a school for many years. Electronics was not the most favorite topic. It was pages and pages of diagrams and symbols and trying to make sense. I was asked to demonstrate a simple chaser circuit. I prepared a 10-page handout with examples and things for the pupils to work with. But what fascinates then more were the physical models and test equipment I used to explain what was happening. They were enthralled.
Appreciate your efforts to help understand topics like this. There is a ton of work behind this short little presentation.
This was so well presented that I could actually pick everything up on the first view!
Impressive. Gold medal of YT education for you sir.
Best Physical Representation! Thanks, Keep up the good work!
Absolutely GREAT explanation.
How did the brain create something like this.
@user-pv8wo3iv7f
3 ай бұрын
It wasn’t one brain.
@connorjohnson3429
3 ай бұрын
Psychedelics
@thisisisabella3634
2 ай бұрын
@@connorjohnson3429yes. That and education.
@elijahjflowers
2 ай бұрын
time and collaboration
@yasirpanezai5690
2 ай бұрын
Same way that something created the brain
This was frickin amazing. I’m going to watch this over and over until I can do and understand the presentation myself.
This video bridges that gap that nobody bothers teaching because "you dont have to know how its made, just hurry up and slap it together". And it does it on a beginner level without needing to learn how to make PCBs. Mans got a good teaching career ahead of him, if not now then definitely when he retires
Excellent and really informative video. Much respect and appreciation from someone who was a young electronics hobbyist when this chip was released. Thank you Windell and to all who were involved. Regards Kieron.
Wow, incredible guys. Thank you so much.
Brilliant idea to make knowledge accesible to people. Thank you so much
This is so good! I really learned heaps just now.
" In loose hand-waving terms..." That is now my favourite saying
@NoDisguiseYet
5 жыл бұрын
This is pretty common saying in my university in europe and it was so funny to hear him say it in english lol
Incredible work. Thanks for sharing. Great respect to Windell Oskay.
I don't think I can thank you enough for explaining this so clearly, but I will try. God bless you, mate.
I hope one day real school or college education be made just this simple to understand. Teaching is nonetheless an art.
This literally hurt my brain. Well done. I have to re watch this a few times.
I teach high school electronics, this is the best video ever!
Amazing. I wouldn't expect an easier to understand explaination. Thank you.
Awesome explanation, thank you!
I feel proud after clicking this video 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
This is SO awesome! Please let's have this be an integral tool of every EE entry logic circuits laboratory course in academia
This is really neat! are the "Wire Bonds"/Pins glitter hot glue sticks with one end heated up and mashed down on the acrylic?
@evil-mad-scientist
5 жыл бұрын
Yes!
He talks very good. Easy to understand
This is level 1 and I’m already tapping out. I’ll just tell the kids it’s magic.
This is a remarkable demonstration
Congratulations for your work! The best approach to logic electronics I ever saw!
Good presentation....building large scale models are great teaching aid.... they should operate and compute bits as well....
omg. I knew how to make transistors but I never really understood how to utilize their structure. I now have a full understanding of how it's constructed and I can now make any circuit *from scratch.* It's not as complicated as people make it out to be. Sure it can get a little involved but a 10 year old can grasp these basics.
Amazing presentation of a integrated circuit.
This is so good, after 40 years of messing with electronics, this is now all clear.
Best explanation I've ever seen... cheers and thanks
What was up with the arduino? I am very interested.
@Nikarus2370
5 жыл бұрын
I am extremely curious as well. All it looks like it was doing was blinking at alternating intervals.
@alexa.davronov1537
5 жыл бұрын
You will need SEM for that. Plus, you it wouldn't be easy to see actual transistors of the ARM cause it's covered by a lot of circuitry removal of which would be kinda tricky.
@0lleman
5 жыл бұрын
It seems that they have etched away the top portion of the microcontroller to show what the insides look like.
@iamthetinkerman
5 жыл бұрын
@@0lleman Good spot!
I've seen people pick apart things like Ds'es in order to add new components and it honestly makes me confused and intrigued on how chips work. Maybe one day i can truly grasp it but you made a neat explaination.
Impressive video.
My favorite KZread video
Nice model and explanation. I'd love a follow up that explained the junctions and electron flow. Presumably the clear layer is not a dielectric but is part on an n-p junction; I can only visualise the function by mentally replacing the clear layer with doped material and even then can't quite map it to my rudimentary understandings of diode junctions in transistors.
That explanation was excellent.👍
cant thank you enough!!! very easy and very well to understand explanation! Thank you again!
Nice explanation!
Great work, congratulations ! I've never seem such clear and clever presentation lilke yours.
1000 likes for this wonderful demonstration.
I can understand everthing now, This is impressive explanation about ICs, thanks.
Amazing presentation. This definitely helps me for my Masters's courses.
Why are there unused "components" on the silicon layer? Was this design used for multiple chips with different functions, selected by the metal layer on top?
@michaelbuckers
5 жыл бұрын
It's a possibility. But to me it looks like they tried to cram in a third gate but gave up on it and never bothered to manufacture a cleaned up stencil.
@jwo7777777
5 жыл бұрын
Sometimes features are built into chips simply for testing to make sure the process is in control, a "quality control only" feature. I am uncertain that this is the case with this chip.
@feha92
5 жыл бұрын
I also want to know what the unused components are for. Are they artifacts from the development process? Are they there for structural integrity? other? I would also have liked a better explanation on what the transistors in the chip was made of. Like the "gap", the word implies its air or vacuum, but the model had something solid there which implies the real one does too, and I am unsure how the base would be held in place away from touching the collector if the gap wasnt solid and the base has air on all sides.
@mike.correa
4 жыл бұрын
@@feha92 look up pnp and npn transistors on KZread. It's basically 2 different types of silicon duping, so the different layers of materials are basically just n silicon and p silicon.
@EdwinSteiner
3 жыл бұрын
@@feha92 One possibility is that the same silicon was used to make chips with different functionality. If you have enough transistors, etc., in the silicon, you can implement different functions just by changing the metal layer(s) that wire(s) things up. Making new masks only for one or two metal layers is much cheaper than creating a complete stack of masks for new silicon. (This is even more true today now that many, many layers of masks are needed and the bottom (finer) masks are much more costly to make than the top ones for the metal layers. Today's complicated silicon devices typically contain lots of extra transistors, gates so that if you are lucky, bugs can be fixed by only changing metal wiring.)
Brilliant.now i understand a little bit better
Incredible model. Wish I could buy this somewhere
That's exactly what I wanted to understand. Deeply thank you! Awesome job!
Wow thank you! This has to be the most wonderfully simple explanation of a silicone chip. You Demystified the inner workings thank you. Amazing to think most modern chips have over 1bn transistors. What I would love to know is what goes on inside when something such as an EPROM is reprogrammed.
thank you - very helpful. amazing how complex these things have become...a true engineering a technological feat
Awesome explanation!
What a great video!
Thanks for your work guys! This will be my go-to video when trying to explain chips to someone. =)
Very nice detailed explanation
Great video and easy to follow :)
Great Demonstration of a monolythic layer model! Working for Infineon Technologies so fair so say!
Excellent props! This would make a great kit for a classroom, been searching online stores for IC teaching tools, or even bare IC's for use in scopes... Great idea to use an older, more simple IC for this. Thanks!
If I just had this in school... Awesome explained! Thanks.
I'm old but appreciate your video alot! Learning to code in the 80's was so much harder to understand 🤣