Name: 微型芯片是如何製造的？- George Zaidan 和 Sajan Saini (How are microchips made? - George Zaidan and Sajan Saini)
Uploaded: 2025-05-14T00:30:30.000Z
Duration: 5 min 29 s

This is a computer chip, magnified 500 times.

這是一個放大了 500 倍的電腦芯片。

What you're looking at is the top of a computing city, with distinct neighborhoods for different functions.

您現在看到的是一個計算城市的頂層，不同的功能區各具特色。

They're linked by up to a hundred kilometers of ultra-thin copper lines running across ten or more stacked levels.

它們之間由長達 100 公里的超薄銅線連接，橫跨十層或更多層。

At the very bottom, billions of electronic devices generate the digital traffic that pulses across the chip.

在最底層，數十億臺電子設備產生的數字流量在芯片上跳動。

The most common of these devices is called a transistor.

這些設備中最常見的稱為半導體。

It's a switch that allows current to flow if it receives a voltage.

它是一個開關，如果接收到電壓，電流就會流動。

Transistors can be as small as 20 nanometers, and more than 50 billion of them can fit on a single chip.

半導體可小至 20 納米，一個芯片上可容納 500 多億個半導體。

Globally, we produce more than a trillion computer chips every year.

在全球範圍內，我們每年生產超過一萬億個計算機芯片。

That's about 20 trillion transistors built every second.

這相當於每秒鐘製造出 20 萬億個半導體。

And it's done in fewer than 500 fabrication plants, known as fabs.

而這些都是在不到 500 家制造工廠（稱為晶圓廠）中完成的。

How do we build so many tiny, intricately connected devices so incredibly fast?

我們怎樣才能以令人難以置信的速度製造出這麼多微小、錯綜複雜的連接設備？

The answer involves a technology called photolithography, which helps us build all the devices on a chip simultaneously.

答案涉及一種名為光刻技術的技術，它可以幫助我們同時在芯片上製造所有器件。

It's like constructing all the buildings in a city at the same time.

這就好比同時建造一座城市的所有建築。

And with no tiny construction crews to help, we build using light as a measuring and sculpting tool.

在沒有小型施工隊幫助的情況下，我們用光作為測量和雕刻工具進行建造。

The process starts with a wafer of silicon, which is doused in solvents and acids to strip it clean before entering a furnace.

該工藝從硅片開始，在進入熔爐之前，先將硅片浸泡在溶劑和酸性物質中，將其剝離乾淨。

Here, oxygen gas reacts with the wafer to form a layer of silicon dioxide.

在這裡，氧氣與晶片發生反應，形成一層二氧化硅。

Then a liquid called photoresist is spun on and baked to harden.

然後，一種名為光刻膠的液體會被紡上並烘烤硬化。

Next, ultraviolet light selectively illuminates the wafer by passing through or reflecting off a specialized mask.

接下來，紫外線通過專門的掩膜或從掩膜上反射出來，選擇性地照亮晶片。

In the lit areas, a reaction weakens the photoresist's chemical bonds.

在光照區域，反應會削弱光刻膠的化學鍵。

The wafer is doused in another chemical to wash away that weakened photoresist, leaving an image of the mask.

將晶片浸泡在另一種化學物質中，洗去被削弱的光阻，留下掩膜的影像。

And an etching machine's reactive gases remove the exposed oxide, creating windows that drill the mask's pattern down to the wafer's surface.

蝕刻機的活性氣體會去除暴露的氧化物，形成窗口，將掩膜圖案鑽到晶片表面。

An implanter then accelerates boron or phosphorus ions and slams them into the patterned openings.

然後，植入器會加速硼或磷離子，並將其撞入圖案化的開口中。

These atoms form electropositive or electronegative regions that change silicon's conductivity, creating the foundation of the transistor switch.

這些原子形成的正電區或負電區改變了硅的導電性，為半導體開關奠定了基礎。

The etched oxide windows, however, create hill-and-valley features.

而蝕刻氧化物窗口則形成了山丘和山谷的特徵。

Before the next level of copper lines are added, this one's uneven lines must be polished flat to near-atomic precision using a sophisticated grinding process called chemical-mechanical polishing, or CMP.

在添加下一層銅線之前，必須使用一種稱為化學機械拋光（CMP）的精密研磨工藝，將這一層不平整的銅線打磨平整，達到近乎原子級的精度。

CMP uses a controlled slurry of submicron ceramic particles to gently scrape and flatten the bumpy features.

CMP 使用亞微米陶瓷顆粒的受控漿料，輕輕刮平凹凸特徵。

These fab tools, and many others, are used hundreds of times on a wafer to create and link transistors into computing logic gates and to make connected neighborhoods for memory storage and computation.

這些製造工具和許多其他工具在晶圓上被使用數百次，用於製造半導體並將其連接成計算邏輯門，以及製造用於內存存儲和計算的連接鄰域。

Fabs run around the clock, and it takes about three months to transform a single wafer from pure silicon into hundreds of chips.

晶圓廠晝夜不停地運轉，將一塊晶圓從純硅變成數百個芯片大約需要三個月的時間。

With this continuous operation, fabs consume huge amounts of electricity, water, solvents, acids, bases, process gases, and precious metals.

在這種連續運行的情況下，工廠需要消耗大量的電力、水、溶劑、酸、鹼、工藝氣體和貴金屬。

Wafers are processed in ultra-high-purity tool chambers, maintained by pumps running constantly to sustain a vacuum that resembles deep space.

晶圓在超高純工具室中進行加工，由泵持續運轉以維持類似深空的真空度。

High-temperature furnaces never turn off.

Fab air handlers constantly expel filtered air to corral dust and tiny particles away from wafers.

Fab 空氣處理器不斷排出過濾後的空氣，以阻擋灰塵和微小顆粒進入晶片。

The chemicals and purified water used in cleaning create nearly five gallons of waste per wafer run, which needs to be filtered and pH treated.

清洗過程中使用的化學品和純淨水會在每次晶片運行過程中產生近五加侖的廢物，這些廢物需要進行過濾和 pH 值處理。

Meanwhile, CMP slurries are continually flushed with water to keep their fine particles from forming chunks that would tear apart the fragile copper lines.

同時，CMP 泥漿會不斷被水沖洗，以防止細小顆粒形成大塊，從而撕裂脆弱的銅線。

Fabs plow through vast amounts of nitrogen and helium gas to run their tools.

工廠使用大量的氮氣和氦氣來運行工具。

And other gases used and generated in these tools are greenhouse contributors.

這些工具中使用和產生的其他氣體也是溫室氣體的來源。

To minimize their emission, machines called scrubbers decompose and dissolve some gaseous byproducts into treatable wastewater.

為了儘量減少它們的排放，被稱為洗滌器的機器將一些氣體副產品分解並溶解到可處理的廢水中。

That uses more electricity and more water.

這樣會耗費更多的電和更多的水。

As computing complexity grows, more copper and precious metals are needed to link up  And new problems arise.

隨著計算複雜性的增加，需要更多的銅和貴金屬來連接，新的問題也隨之出現。

Today, PFAS-based photoresists are essential to make ever-smaller features.

如今，基於 PFAS 的光刻膠對於製造更小的特徵至關重要。

But PFAS waste in the environment is ending up in our bodies.

但是，環境中的 PFAS 廢物最終會進入我們的身體。

Computer chips are modern marvels that have transformed our world.

計算機芯片是改變我們世界的現代奇蹟。

And the factories that build them are themselves engineering wonders.

而建造它們的工廠本身就是工程奇蹟。

But as our demand for chips accelerates, their fabrication is hitting hard sustainability limits.

但是，隨著我們對芯片需求的加速增長，芯片的製造正受到可持續發展的嚴重限制。

Already, some places are beginning to ration water to farmers in favor of running fabs.

一些地方已經開始對農民實行配給供水，以保證晶圓廠的運行。

For the sake of the future of computing and our environment, tomorrow's leaner, cleaner, and greener fabs will need to run even smarter than the very chips they build.

為了未來的計算和我們的環境，未來更精簡、更清潔、更環保的晶圓廠需要比它們製造的芯片更加智能。

Have you ever wondered what exactly makes your smartphone work?

您想過智能手機究竟是如何工作的嗎？

Take a closer look at the precious minerals that go into our phones with this video and find out how we can make this practice more sustainable.

通過這段視頻，您可以近距離了解我們手機中的珍貴礦物質，並瞭解我們如何才能讓這種做法更具可持續性。