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| What is Electromagnetic Education? |
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| – Integrated Circuitry Inside – |
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INTEGRATED Circuitry is largely made invisible in its final packaging in electronics devices, therefore the great advances in placing more and more transistors into smaller and smaller spaces becomes difficult to see in normal circumstances, as this happens inside of chips that are manufactured in ways that make it impossible to see what is going on, even with the naked eye. In other words, the realm of greatest integration which is often lauded with Moore's Law (transistors in an integrated circuit double every two years) is made largely inaccessible to first-hand observation, with a few exceptions. To 'see' the internal circuitry in various chip packaging, such as the dual-inline packages above (DIP) which look similar to bugs with metal legs, and the Pin-grid arrays (PGA) packages which are square chips with metal pins, requires going backward in the process of creating the chips by way of the artifacts involved in their manufacturing.
FOR instance, one is able to gleam a sense of the integrated circuitry which allows a Central Processing Unit (CPU) such as Intel's Pentium II chip to perform its functions through transistors, logic gates, and memory, all of which are part of the chips design. Though, to dissect an older computer and obtain such a CPU specimen only confirms the easy accessibility of seeing the chip circuitry itself. |
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WHAT is often referred to as 'the brains' of a computer, the integrated circuit (IC) artifact of most renown ('Intel Inside') is found in a protective case does not reveal an easy way to open it up for inspection. Inside is the CPU which is known to generate great amounts of heat during intensive use, as it is using several million transistors and other integrated electronic functions for computation at the microscopic scale. The giant black metal 'fins' clamped to the Pentium II processor is a heatsink which dissipates this heat. When removed it shows an inch-square metal plate on its surface which connects to the metal back of the Pentium II processor enclosure. This is the only indication that a square microprocessor chip is inside, other than a holographic sticker on the front of the enclosure which reproduces the aesthetic of the circuitry in its most brilliant spectral qualities and general design patterning. Therefore, a substitute image is shown for the inaccessible chip, but it is only a sticker. The sticker appears to be that of a die, an unpackaged integrated circuit (IC).
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 Large IC Die, The Electronic Goldmine |
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THE integrated circuit (IC) die is one artifact that can be found at unique electronics surplus stores for inspection by eyeball, digital microscope, and camera as with the above large die artifact -- a rectangle less than 3/4" long and 1/2" wide, its integrated circuitry contains millions of transistors and other components in an area equivalent to a single US penny (1 cent piece). Such an IC die eventually becomes a 'chip' when placed in a plastic or epoxy housing of the various IC packaging types, such as the PGA below. The die would be somewhere inside such casing, and the exterior pins would be connected to its circuitry though the IC shown and the die shown are not a die/IC matching set.
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 An integrated circuit (IC) chip encloses a die of custom electronic circuitry made accessible through external pins. |
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MICROSCOPIC details of an anonymous die can be revealed with the use of a digital microscope, (such as the USB QX3/QX3+ Computer Microscope, and miXscope software for Mac OS X). The digital image captured below shows the die magnified 60x to observe its varying structure and design. Without greater understanding of electronics it is hard to know what is being seen besides the general assumption that this transistor circuitry which utilize them transistors to process electronic energy as electronic information.
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| (NOTE that such integrated circuitry often has an aesthetic dimension recognized by many for its beauty as state-of-the-art science and technology, and the magic of being able to order the microscopic world of electronic matter to perform work for humans. This has not been lost on artists or companies who have used artifacts such as IC dies to create jewelry, samples of which Intel sent of discarded Pentium (™) chips which were made into electromagnetic jewelry, including earrings, necklaces, cufflinks, and keychains (1) (2). It is believed that more semiconductor companies could follow this lead by making educational use of their unique artifacts which do not make it into final products by creating a small packet with samples, for schoolchildren to learn about transistors and the process of making a CPU or IC by way of optical or digital microscope and a short lesson to share basic information about these unique and important artifacts of our time.) |
 5" diameter silicon wafer with hundreds of small IC die |
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DIE artifacts themselves are created in the fabrication (FAB) process in which dozens to hundreds of IC die are manufactured on a single silicon wafer, depending on its size. Local semiconductor (chip) companies may offer tours of their facilities and could enable a chance to see how this entire process works, as the use of clean rooms, bunny suits, silicon disks, and production-line robotic machinery can be an interesting experience. 'Silicon Valley' is a good place for such tours, if traveling near the San Jose, California area, as the Tech Museum of Innovation and Intel Museum both offer resources for learning more about the artifacts and infrastructures of computation which help define today's electromagnetic culture.
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 The many small IC die on this 5" silicon wafer create an equal amount of IC chips (hundreds more chips than shown in this photograph). |
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BETWEEN the fabrication of the silicon material in which the electronics circuitry is designed and transferred to a die, and the final outcome as a chip in which the die is no longer visible, is a chance to see the type of hidden complexity inside every outwardly 'simple'-looking chip. Each chip is different, in some way. One way could be the markings on the chips themselves, another is the specific design of the integrated circuit which may vary from chip to chip, by specification of its use, yet externally they may look largely similar in form, requiring a datasheet to decipher their specific functioning, and probably making forever inaccessible the internal circuitry encased in these artifacts.
Yet, for each working die there is a potential for a chip to carry its circuitry inside it. Therefore, a single wafer can produce a very large number of chips.
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 Each small IC die (square) becomes an integrated circuit (IC) chip with the electronics circuitry hidden inside IC packaging. (99 die fully visible, which could create 99 chips. 2 shown.) |
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AGAIN using a microscope can enable seeing what is otherwise invisible in the transformation from integrated circuitry from the external realm of IC die and silicon wafers to the internal realm of IC chips. The following series of photographs demonstrates detail which can be seen beyond the naked eye.
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 silicon wafer with IC die 10x magnification (24 fully visible).  silicon wafer with IC die 60x magnification (1 visible) notice circuitry and larger metal 'pads' along perimeter. |
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"Relatively large areas of aluminum called pads are constructed at the edges of each integrated circuit for testing and connection purposes. Some of the pads are used to supply power to the device, while the rest are used to provide input and output signals." (p.150, Bebop to the Boolean Boogie, An Unconventional Guide to Electronics, Clive "Max" Maxfield. 2003, Newnes, NY.)
FURTHER magnification (200x) reveals the detailed design of these smaller IC die with transistors (and it is assumed resistors, and capacitors) creating complex circuit functioning such as logic gates in a microscopic scale. It is speculated that the various 'patterns' that can be seen 'integrating' in this imagery may delineate areas in which microscopic components interact in the circuit design. |
       silicon wafer with IC die 200x magnification (details of single die). notice the 'Vdd' pad for supplying electricity to the circuitry. |
| PLACING together all the observations made thus far of integrated circuit chips, which package inside them an IC die which is itself the integrated electronic circuitry of microscopic transistors and other components designed to perform various specific functions with electricity power and information, it would then allow a conceptual view of the 'black box' aspect of the regular DIP chip or other ubiquitous 'bugs' -- if one could see inside of a finished chip it would have a tiny die which is hooked up by tiny wires to the metal pins, which are the external interface to the circuitry inside. These chip pins then become the way to access the circuit and its integrated functioning within one device and through the economics of mass production and scale of miniaturizing complex circuits in one device which can be related to other similarly complex chips. At the heart of every IC chip, then, is a fabrication wafer and IC die which makes it work. As this is impenetrable to a plain view, without additional artifacts and tools to scale to the levels of detail involved, for a more complete review. |
 integrated circuitry of IC die bonded by electrical wire to metal leg pins, encapsulated in DIP chip design. illustration by electronetwork.org 2004, ©-free. |
| INTEGRATED circuits for analog and digital chips may look identical when the chips are inside their packaging. More details and specifications are needed, such as datasheets, to find out what a chip does by itself, as integrated circuits are rather anonymous compared to their ubiquitous use, and their complexity is literally hidden from view. Greater understanding is needed so to appreciate what it means to integrate circuits, as it is at this point that a single chip circuit can become a digital clock, thermometer, audio mixer, or computer. It is amazing to behold these developments in electronics which with nanotechnology may soon be further out of reach for investigation by the novice. Therefore, it is important to begin learning more about what exists today and how such artifacts function, in themselves and in society at large, so that the oncoming advances are still made tangible beyond just a small group of experts. (bc 8.19.2004) |
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