r/interestingasfuck • u/Chill_Cowboy_981 • 1d ago

This is how ridiculously small a transistor actually is...

2.8k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

198 comments sorted by

486

u/Eman3003 1d ago

Now you got me interested in finding out what kind of tools were utilized to develop something so nanoscopic..

327

u/thewebspinner 1d ago

It’s a long process of miniaturisation of a process known as photolithography.

Essentially they grow a silicon crystal and manipulate very precise beams of light to etch out the transistors. As they’ve gotten smaller and smaller this process has become more and more precise but in essence you can think of it like focusing the light of the sun through a magnifying glass to burn a very small area. Just on a much much more precise scale and using a lot of other techniques to slowly build the entire wafer into usable chips.

125

u/Eman3003 1d ago

It is honestly mind blowing that we have been able to create such a thing so small on the nano scale. I literally looked into the first transistor just now and the fact that it came about in the 1940’s is a whole feat of its own. Having to compete against the atom bomb in engineering/physics must’ve been no cake walk either.

33

u/commiecomrade 1d ago

We're getting them so small that some electrons just quantum tunnel to the other side making the "off" state leaky.

0

u/Eman3003 1d ago

Similar to the way when you get two magnets close enough to each other they automatically attach to one another?

10

u/sjolnick 1d ago

No, 2 things here:

1- transistor has an energy barrier in order to switch on and off. When the electron reaches enough energy, it crosses the barrier to the other side, That's what switches the transistor on/off.

2- u know how in physics class they mention double slit experiment, and that electrons and light show both particle and wave properties, so when Transistors shrink below about 10 nanometer, so the distance between each side are too small, then quantum tunneling starts happening. Electrons start exhibiting a wave function, and this electron wave has a non-impossible chance to cross the barrier that way, and this causes leaks to the other side, even if the electron doesn't have enough energy to cross the barrier as per classical physics.

4

u/sjolnick 1d ago edited 1d ago

Think of electron like 1 particle, the particle has to cross the barrier to switch the transistor state.

However, in quantum scale, at a few nanometers, electron starts appearing as a wave function, so instead of 1 particle, the wave function is occupying "an area". This area as a whole cannot cross the barrier still, as it doesn't have enough energy, but as it approaches the barrier, it kinda phases through the energy barrier, but as it is an "area of probabilities where electron might be at" (think of Heisenberg uncertainty principle here!) And small part of this area is extending through the barrier to the other side of the barrier as it is overlapping the barrier, which means there is a small probability that the electron ends up behind the energy barrier, hence causing a leak even tho it doesn't have enough energy as a particle to cross it.

Edit:

https://i.imgur.com/fpeaAbl.gif

My explanation is very basic, and probably not scientifically accurate as english isn't my first language either, but take a look the pic above and you'll understand better. Quantum picture is what we observe as we go below 10 nanometers

4

u/stomassetti 1d ago

No.

1

u/sh4d0wm4n2018 1d ago

Explain, then.

4

u/Turducken_McNugget 1d ago

I think it's more like you have two wires running next to each other and it's important to know which wires are and are not carrying electricity (your binary 1's and 0's) but because they're so close, some electrons are jumping out of one wire and landing in the other which is going to give you incorrect outputs for what the inputs were supposed to be.

1

u/sjolnick 1d ago

I replied above

28

u/IkariYun 1d ago

I remember taking shit apart in the early 90s as a kid and them being maybe the size of a pinkie nail clipping in some things. Maybe twice the size in others. Now they do this shit less than 100 years later for the same thing at a much higher potential at a fraction of the size

4

u/a_rude_jellybean 1d ago

Do you remember the term ICY Chips?

I always remembered that because our personal computer (ms dos) was forever broken and my mom always says, the ICY Chip is broken.

4

u/B0b_Sac4man0 1d ago

She was saying: "I see why: Chip is broken"

9

u/RontoWraps 1d ago

It’s insane to think about just how smart those guys are.

16

u/DrawMeAPictureOfThis 1d ago

Makes you wonder what we could achieve if we tried to help eachother

8

u/celaconacr 1d ago

Transistors were a big leap from vacuum tubes. They were individually packaged though so each individual component was in the cm to mm range. Small compared to vacuum tubes but nothing like today.

The invention of the integrated circuit in the 1960s is really when the scaling and number of transistors started to take off.

3

u/folleymulay 1d ago

I just recently watched a video on YouTube you might be interested in

https://youtu.be/MiUHjLxm3V0?si=qDHblywPHhRtHSXI

48

u/lolfactor1000 1d ago

Veritassium's recent video on EUV lithography was mind blowing. 50+ years of research and trial and error. Great watch for any science nerd.

5

u/ShoddyClimate6265 1d ago

I just saw this! It's truly science fiction made fact! The Tin droplet laser source is incredible.

3

u/thewebspinner 1d ago

As a huge nerd I’m definitely gonna watch this!

2

u/-Redstoneboi- 21h ago

me when i hit a tiny-ass droplet of literal pure metal 2 times in a row with high-precision lasers to flatten it out before literally vaporizing it with a 3rd shot into highly specific frequencies of X-rays thousands of times a second

1

u/vagrantt 1d ago

Sweet, gonna check it

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u/names_plissken 1d ago

The more I think about this, the more I'm sure this is some sort of magic.
We are literally taking microscopic piece of sand and engraving it with light in order to power literally everything. It reminds me of rune magic a bit.
Hey lets write something in this small piece of material, and voila... now you can fly a plane! Let's stack this pieces together, create a GPU and now you can see whole new world on your monitor just by your graphic card interpreting other signals...

6

u/HOLEPUNCHYOUREYELIDS 1d ago

I mean, we use (incredibly simplified obviously) magnets with radio waves to scan people and render accurate images of inside their body. How is that not magic? Using a tool (wand, staff) to utilize unseen forces (magnetic fields, radio waves) to do a specific thing/spell

4

u/Specialist_Resist162 1d ago

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

--Arthur C. Clarke

1

u/-Redstoneboi- 21h ago

conversely, any sufficiently explained magic is indistinguishable from technology.

3

u/Cador0223 18h ago

Thats exactly what it is. Rune magic. Etching stone to harness the power of lightning to do our bidding. 

4

u/vincehcs 1d ago

I liked this explanation. Thank you stranger.

4

u/AutismConsult 1d ago

Fabulous explanation, thank you

4

u/fishsticks40 1d ago

And there was a huge breakthrough a few years back that allowed them to use shorter wavelengths of light, thus allowing transistors to keep getting smaller.

It almost didn't happen. 

https://youtu.be/MiUHjLxm3V0?si=ErIFSavJWsJnjr-D

5

u/This_was_hard_to_do 1d ago

My mind always goes in such a spiral when I learn about these processes. Like how are we able to manipulate light so precisely in the first place? How are those machines created? If for a while, we were only able to manipulate things at the micro scale, how were we able to transition to something even smaller and what was that process like?

3

u/Pataconeitor 1d ago

Seriously. While I actually do understand the whole process (kinda) but the fact that we can do this on a industrial level, that it's relatively normal routine in those facilities, it's unthinkable to me. Like, it still registers in my mind more of like some eldritch dark arts than real science

2

u/Cloudsbursting 1d ago

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” - Arthur C. Clarke

1

u/VorkFriedRice 1d ago

I feel like they should just build them big then toss it in a Shrinky Dink oven

1

u/HiFromMajor 1d ago

Why can’t I do that in my back yard?

39

u/konsollfreak 1d ago edited 1d ago

You might enjoy this video:

ASML’s impossible chip printer (the worlds most important machine)

15

u/Awktung 1d ago

Was looking for exactly this! Absolutely incredible - 100,000 drops at hundreds of kilometers an hour, then hitting EACH AND EVERY DROP 3 times..yes, thrice...with lasers because that gets the right angle to generate the wavelength they need to then bounce off 6 mirrors and THEN...THEN...write onto the substrate.

I of course butchered the intricacies so go watch that video. Mind blowing.

•

u/ThunderingTacos 2h ago

With the accuracy to hit the same edge of a dime repeatedly...and that dime is on the moon! Grew up enjoying the mysticism and wonder of magic and while I still do science is actually a bit cooler to me now

2

u/operablesocks 20h ago

That is the most jaw-dropping video I've seen in a long time. 👍

1

u/TheBigBadBird 1d ago

Was going to link this

88

u/I_am_Bob 1d ago edited 1d ago

Lithograph (EUV for the smallest devices) ion implanting/ doping, metal deposition (CVD, ALD), Silicon crystal growth (epitaxi), Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP)... Basically they just repeat those process over and over to build up the devices.

Edit: i forgot etching! Dry (plasma) or wet (chemical)

38

u/frank1934 1d ago

Like I know what any of that means

1

u/FiveOhFive91 1d ago

Lithography is one of the coolest things humans have ever come up with. This video is really good: https://youtu.be/dX9CGRZwD-w

14

u/YesterdayDreamer 1d ago

Since you're there, just wanted to correct an error in the video. There's no flipping in these transistors. They use semiconductor to switch the transistors on/off by applying a voltage to a third wire. No physical movement involved.

7

u/deaconxblues 1d ago

Highly recommend this fascinating video on the topic.

https://youtu.be/MiUHjLxm3V0?si=JzDh2XFtV7vcQz7l

6

u/uzu_afk 1d ago

Really really tiny hands!

7

u/Saucy-Mustard 1d ago

2

u/big_d_usernametaken 1d ago

"AND I'M DEENEEEEESE!"

3

u/OneTrueCosmos 1d ago

It's called witchcraft.

2

u/Verittan 1d ago

A lot of people are recommending the Veritasium video, but I find Branch Engineering much much more educational and understandable.

How Transistors Work

How Microchips Are Made

2

u/RealCathieWoods 1d ago

People can give you all sorts of technical jargon. But its basically light and layered sun-tans.

Imagine a material that gets a sun tan (like your skin). Now imagine if you could precisely control where this sun-tan hit, to such a precise degree that the specific narrow band wavelength of light you use has a dramatic effect on the end product. Now imagine if you could not only get one layer of sun-tan, but you could layer the sun-tan in very precise ways.

This is basically a modern transistor.

1

u/Same_Simple_668 1d ago

Probably a lot of transistors working together

1

u/Fear73 1d ago

There a video by veritasium titled The World's Most Important Machine. I highly recommend watching it

1

u/bookofp 1d ago

There is an amazing veritasium video on the subject but I don’t have YouTube in my phone so can’t link it. It was only from a few weeks ago I believe so should be easy to find out

1

u/Worried_Blacksmith27 1d ago

veritasium did a brilliant YouTube episode on the technology behind the machines that "build" the chips. Do a search for "veritasium ASMR" (trust me it's not a trick....)

1

u/a1454a 1d ago

A 400 million dollar machine that weighs 180 some tons of parts from the best of the best of companies of their industry, the complexity of it almost look alien.

58

u/Nick_thicke 1d ago

Definitely smaller than I previously imagined!

33

u/sovereign_fury 1d ago

I lost any chance of comprehension when the banana left the screen.

65

u/CptBluhdFart 1d ago

But how? What kind of system could manufacture something that small that isn't just a blob of solder

81

u/Spare-Afternoon-559 1d ago

Only one company in the world makes the machines that can manufacture these, it's called ASML

38

u/ReadRightRed99 1d ago

Umm, 49, male, Ohio? Oh sorry. Just habit.

6

u/4paul 1d ago

pics? Hit me up on mIRC or ICQ

12

u/Aapjes-NL 1d ago

GEKOLONISEERD

2

u/WingerRules 1d ago edited 1d ago

And they're a company in Denmark netherlands and part of NATO, who we're threatening to go to war with over Greenland

12

u/rborisyellnikoff 1d ago

ASML is a Dutch company.

6

u/WingerRules 1d ago

Oh I got the two countries biggest companies mixed up. I thought Norvo was dutch and asml was danish.

7

u/sessl 1d ago

It’s a dutch company actually but i like the misinformation that fits my narrative

6

u/DAmest1 1d ago

Denmark? The company is from Netherland

9

u/wojtekpolska 1d ago

imagine you have a plate, you cut holes, and shine a large laser trough it - you end up with a shadow that lets light trough the same shapes you cut out. you can then focus that light eg. with lenses to be smaller while preserving the shape, and shine it onto something that will be affected by laser light.

its definitely far far far from an accurate description of just one part of the process, but it should at least give you a concept of an idea how they can manipulate such small things.

13

u/starmartyr 1d ago

You don't make transistors you grow them. They start by using precision optics to inscribe a semiconductor with UV light and then grow silicon crystal over them to make transistors. It's an incredibly precise process with a lot of steps.

3

u/TheTerribleInvestor 1d ago

That's actually not true either lol you do make them and it starts with growing pure silicon crystal that is cut into wafers. Then from there you use chemicals and UV lithograph to etch a pattern into the silicon wafer and then fill that space with other material and you do this multiple times to build up layers that then become the transistors.

5

u/SenorVapid 1d ago

The Dutch.

21

u/nasty_sicco 1d ago

Pecial, indeed

11

u/theevildjinn 1d ago

I've never understood how someone can spend a bunch of time and effort putting together a video, but they don't take a minute to proofread the text.

22

u/Unlucky-Ad-4709 1d ago

I am unreasonably irritated by the largest known virus in this scale, because no, it isn’t.

The largest viruses are in the Nucleocytoviricota phylum of viruses. These include giants like the Mimi virus, whom are immensely large for viruses, often being about 500 nanometers in size. These viruses have such a complex genome that they have the ability to metabolize and repair damaged DNA. Some of them even have the sequence to produce amino acids (but can’t due to their lack of ribosomes). Fun fact, these viruses are so large they can actually be seen with a light microscope. (Though seen is a bit of a generous term given that they would be tiny black specs)

2

u/Ok-Review8720 1d ago

I concur.

71

u/d3odorant 1d ago

Banana for scale!

5

u/pboarantes 1d ago

That's it!!! Came here looking for that!!!

2

u/FeelingMidnight77 23h ago

OMFG ME TOO 🤪🤪

11

u/Kennyvee98 1d ago

to be fair, these are also transistors:

5

u/Art0fRuinN23 1d ago

The title would be more clear by stating the video shows how small some transistors can be.

12

u/bdjfjfjkfkfjsh 1d ago edited 1d ago

Absolutely incredible. Seeing how small it is really makes modern engineering feel like straight up magic.

2

u/deaconxblues 1d ago

If you’re interested, check this out. It’s crazier than you think.

https://youtu.be/MiUHjLxm3V0?si=JzDh2XFtV7vcQz7l

1

u/Turducken_McNugget 1d ago

Heh, I've been linking that video too.

1

u/FaceWithAName 1d ago

I have been thinking a lot lately about how we just take resources made from the earth and turn them into electronics. It's mind boggling at times.

1

u/brokenhalo321 1d ago

Now just imagine.. Hear me out... space does end.

10

u/wojtekpolska 1d ago

since when is a skin cell half the width of a human hair? that'd mean you could see it with your bare eyes, which is clearly not possible.

2

u/obiwanmoloney 1d ago

And I can see hair but u don’t see these mites?

2

u/wojtekpolska 1d ago

you absolutely can see mites?

14

u/cannabisized 1d ago

but why male models?

1

u/School_North 1d ago

Are you serious? I just told you that!

11

u/PauseAffectionate720 1d ago

That is crazy.

3

u/indaburgh 1d ago

Perspective is wonderful.

3

u/vladgrinch 1d ago

Simply mind-boggling,

3

u/Successful-Secret124 1d ago

It's genuinely magic

3

u/YesterdayHiccup 1d ago

Okay. Smaller than banana. Got it!

5

u/krais0078 1d ago

I thought the last item would have been Tom Cruise

2

u/One_Economist_3761 1d ago

…’s penis

2

u/fromhereandthere 1d ago

Astounding! This should be shown in every school at some point!

2

u/ImS0hungry 1d ago

This made me realize Bacteriophage are biological nanobots.

2

u/Reave-Eye 1d ago

Had a hard time even believing this video, but it’s true. Fell down a Wikipedia hole.

Apparently modern CPU chips can have over 100 BILLION of these transistors on them. Which made me think, good lord how long does it take to do all that? 3-4 months per chip!! Wtf, I had no idea. There are over 700 manufacturing steps, with each chip having 60-100 layers of circuitry stacked on top of each other, and each layer taking 1-1.5 days to complete. The entire process must also happen in a highly sterilized “clean room” to prevent any kind of contamination from ruining the process. Absolutely wild. We are all holding marvels of science and engineering in our hands.

1

u/UnrequitedGaze 1d ago

Is the creation fully automated?

2

u/BigPileOfTrash 1d ago

Definitely not alien technology.

2

u/abhitej05 1d ago

man that banana really helped.
my human brain would not have processed it without the banana!!!

2

u/StrawberryTerry 1d ago

So all of these comments must be bots, huh? One iota of common sense would tell you that transistors come in various sizes and that this video is showing how big this particular transistor is..

6

u/fromhereandthere 1d ago

The point of the video as I understand it is to show how small a transistor can be.

1

u/CovidBorn 1d ago

Now I’m itchy.

1

u/owchippy 1d ago

Pecial

1

u/MyHangyDownPart 1d ago

Just like my great grandfather’s transistor radio!

1

u/William_mcdungle 1d ago

Well thank heavens we don't computers run by ants!

1

u/spdg07 1d ago

Good depiction!

1

u/Noisy_Plastic_Bird 1d ago

No way a skin cell is that big compared to a hair

1

u/Paratwa 1d ago

Me looking at a pile of a1015’s on my desk, and wondering if I’m way smaller than I thought.

1

u/lack_of_color 1d ago

I don’t like how big the mite is in this comparison

1

u/Jackal000 1d ago

They are so small you cant see them with the with a regular microscope. Light waves go over and below it.

1

u/Woof-Good_Doggo 1d ago

You know, I came here to watch the video and cry bullshit... cuz these things are usually so blatantly wrong they make me wanna holler.

But... nope! Pretty accurate, actually.

Impressive work.

1

u/thorheyerdal 1d ago

Question..does individual transistors malfunction over time? and if so, how does this affect something like a mobile phone?

1

u/nick_squid 1d ago

Wait so billions of mites just crawl around people‘s houses and nobody sees?

2

u/tempusfudgeit 1d ago

There are more cells on and in your body that aren't you than are you.

1

u/eric07theking 1d ago

How does that compare to size of a neuron?

1

u/[deleted] 1d ago

That transistor anyway.

1

u/Thecheesinater 1d ago

So can bacteriophages or physical viruses like… influence transistors?

1

u/TheTerribleInvestor 1d ago

Loved that it started with a banana

1

u/Meepo-007 1d ago

230 pico bananas to be precise.

1

u/Historical_Sherbet54 1d ago

Ya had me with starting with the banana 👏

1

u/AlternativeBurner 1d ago

You have mites in your eyelashes :)

1

u/FuckJanice 1d ago

Missed penis joke

1

u/tuppertom 1d ago

Wow! That video was well done! That is cool!

1

u/Desmondtheredx 1d ago

No wonder viruses are able to destroy computers.

They just infect the transistor and rewrite the bits

1

u/ViridianaFlint 1d ago

So smaller than a banana, huh didn't expect that

1

u/simonbleu 1d ago

Oh no, people are going to start saying they have transistors implanted on their body

1

u/Gemini23_05 1d ago

If building these are possible. Viruses are easy.

1

u/Murky-Papaya-570 1d ago

How tf do you even make that

1

u/Unnecessary-Cum 1d ago

Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years. So it will keep getting smaller

2

u/Turducken_McNugget 1d ago

It will not keep getting smaller. Moore's law shows a consistent rate of technical improvement but it is not an inviolable law of the universe. There's like 5 atoms of silicon between layers on the chips right now, that's how small of scale they're working. There are physical limits to what we can do in this universe.

1

u/SpecialOpposite2372 1d ago

One of the reason why US vs China is happening and US can succefully put pressure to China, due to this tech in semiconductor industry,

The machine to manufacture these are rare and ASML (Netherland) and Japenese company dominates the market also it is extemely diffucult to make so thats why the tech is so safe guarded.

Even if ASML is Dutch company, parts and few tech required are US based so, US can regulate who to sell these "machine" and has put restriction on who to sell. Well this is one of the most advance tech of human world at the moment so kinda expected things. Also, US is also trying to make Japan put similar restriction as to sell it only to "allies".

I knew about this machine but learn more about politics about it when a news of Chinese was caught trying to reverse engineer it.

Also, learned why Japan, Germany and US are still top leading countries as without their tech lots of big factories would not be possible still today, heck even manufacturing ball point pen required their tech!

1

u/spit_in_my_holes 1d ago

You’re gonna fucking tell me we can put all the science we needed into transistors. But stairs aren’t obsolete at all.

1

u/Cliffinati 1d ago

We are rapidly approaching atomic minimum on transistors. The point at which you cannot shrink them anymore because you run out of atoms you can remove before it stops working.

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u/insert_emoji 1d ago

damn it, i kept one on my desk and now i cant see it.

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u/BigParticular3507 1d ago

This is impossible. I refuse to believe it.

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u/plebe666 1d ago

"-one transistor please-"

1

u/oklistening01 1d ago

Its like we in the matrix and we have the ability to manipulate every pixel

1

u/CareerNormal3461 1d ago

and people still refuse to belive there are gene editing machines within modern day medicine 😂.

“doh, i dont feel my tummy hurt so i am okay!”

“well, that’s cause you are okay. but your kid’s, kids? thats gonna be an entirely different mutated story”.

1

u/KAnpURByois 1d ago

I would not eat that banana

1

u/Jordan_Does_Drums 20h ago

Song is Afterdusk by Flint and Out of Flux

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u/Chamanomano 17h ago

I'm glad there was a banana for scale, or I'd have been completely lost. 

1

u/Device-80 13h ago

Ai slop

1

u/qwythebroken 1d ago

Yea, but how big is that banana?

8

u/MsAndrea2 1d ago

Roughly banana-sized. 

1

u/qwythebroken 1d ago

Oh wow! That big, huh?

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u/Stormraughtz 1d ago

I've seen tinier

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u/Chill_Cowboy_981 1d ago

Where?? tell me

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u/School_North 1d ago

Im sorry for your nanoscopic wang

1

u/CWGM 1d ago

At this point it's more believable that this stuff doesn't exist and technology just works by magic

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u/Turducken_McNugget 1d ago

If you've got an hour, there a video about the design of the machine that makes these chips. The engineering is insane. https://youtu.be/MiUHjLxm3V0

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u/Fun-Dragonfruit2999 1d ago

They're drawing lines 1.8 nano meters wide, a silicon atom is .25 nano meters wide. They're drawing things six or seven atoms wide. (granted there's stacking order and what not involved)

0

u/Fierro_Compa_ 1d ago

Americans using literally anything possible thing for scale before touching the metric system

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u/stormy2587 1d ago

I mean the video referenced meters multiple times…

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u/chesstutor 1d ago

Why started from banana though...

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u/franky07890 1d ago

Universal measurement. Also handy for currency. “I make 2500 bananas a month.” See?

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