Tiny InP Test Chip: Here's a tiny InP Test Chip. This image was created with the Mitutoyo 20X and Sigma 200mm LSA as a tube lens. Stack was about 330 images at 2.5 microns. I had to...

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Tiny InP Test Chip

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Dec 26, 2017 09:11:50 #

mawyatt Loc: Clearwater, Florida

Here's a tiny InP Test Chip. This image was created with the Mitutoyo 20X and Sigma 200mm LSA as a tube lens. Stack was about 330 images at 2.5 microns.
I had to file the head down of the smallest pin (0.5mm dia) to mount the chip.
In the image note the brown large squares, these are through vias to the chip backside, also the probe scribe marks on the end pads. Another consumption of my time, besides posting here, is indicated in the ULC.
Best & Happy Holidays, Mike

(Download)

Dec 26, 2017 09:17:03 #

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Cool.
--Bob

Dec 26, 2017 10:07:38 #

GalaxyCat Loc: Boston, MA

So this is an integrated circuit? What is its purpose? Why isn't it in a package? yet?
Is this part of your job?

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Dec 26, 2017 11:40:37 #

mawyatt Loc: Clearwater, Florida

GalaxyCat wrote:

So this is an integrated circuit? What is its purpose? Why isn't it in a package? yet? Is this part of your job?

Yes in Indium Phosphide, not Silicon. Detect RF and Microwave energy. Test chip. Yes, I design chips among other efforts. Here's the ugly black area edited out.

(Download)

Dec 26, 2017 12:36:26 #

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

Awesome work, Mike

Dec 26, 2017 13:42:28 #

PaulBa Loc: Cardiff, Wales

Dec 26, 2017 13:46:59 #

Mark Sturtevant Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

Wow, that is small. And stacking at this scale is very difficult, I imagine. Well done!

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Dec 26, 2017 14:45:47 #

mawyatt Loc: Clearwater, Florida

Thanks all. Yes Mark it's more difficult, vibration becomes a major obstacle to achieving acceptable results and sources must be rooted out and eliminated or reduced significantly.

Dec 26, 2017 15:43:31 #

MJL Loc: Wild Rose, Wisconsin

That is really cool looking! It struck me that the part within the border of gold squares if replicated on a much larger scale could make a really interesting entry door to an office or modern style home.

Dec 26, 2017 17:49:45 #

mawyatt Loc: Clearwater, Florida

Thanks MJL. Well it is kind of an entry for electrons :>)
Best & Happy Holidays, Mike

Dec 27, 2017 17:35:34 #

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

Dec 28, 2017 17:20:20 #

Tikva Loc: Waukesha, WI

Terrific photo. Lots of work just setting this up let alone doing the photography and PP. Also, the subject is interesting. Hard to believe they can make these as small as they do and that they work. New technology intrigues me. I have worked as a technical programmer on large IBM mainframes for 34 years now. Started out in the applications area and then switched to mainframe networking after 6 years. I've been doing that every since. Now I mainly just work on file transfers to and from the mainframe for the US Treasury Dept. Even though I have worked in a technical field for all these years, it still never ceases to amaze me that anything EVER works not that sometimes there are problems. I greatly admire the engineers to design both the hardware and the software to run it. These are not the applications that the user sees, but the software that drives all the applications that run on it. Much like developing the hardware of a PC and the Microsoft software that makes it all work.

Thanks so much for posting the photos.

Dec 29, 2017 09:22:59 #

mawyatt Loc: Clearwater, Florida

Tikva,

Thanks. The density of todays silicon CMOS is such that an entire intel 386 processor can be placed under a typical bond pad (~100 microns square)! These CMOS processes routinely produce chips with well over a billion devices!

Best & Happy Holidays,

Mike

Dec 29, 2017 10:06:39 #

Uuglypher Loc: South Dakota (East River)

mawyatt wrote:

Hi, mawyatt,
I never fail to marvel at the scale at which you folks in chip design and production must work,
Are indium phosphide semiconductor chips subject to process and performance variances to the same degree as are SiO2 devices? And is “doping” with rare metals a component of the manufacture of indium phosphide chips?

I am assuming that indium phosphide serve the same semiconductor function as does silicon, but in a somehow more refined manner in some regards than does silicon ... ? or is there some other reason for the choice of indium phosphide?

Thanks much for posting,

Dave

Dec 29, 2017 10:48:52 #

mawyatt Loc: Clearwater, Florida

Uuglypher wrote:

Hi, mawyatt, br I never fail to marvel at the scal... (show quote)

Hi Dave,

Yes Indium Phosphide (InP) does suffer from similar process variations as Silicon, and selective doping is used to create the different desirable electrical properties. InP is the base semiconductor like Silicon, and is processed similarly. It is used because of specific electrical properties (charge mobility, bandgap) that allows operation at higher frequencies than traditional Silicon.

Silicon CMOS is the most advanced semiconductor technology in general, with chips being just shipped at 10 nanometer feature size. To put this in perspective a Silicon atom is about 0.2 nanometers wide and the wavelength in free space of green light is ~550 nanometers. So these 10nm process Silicon chips are working fundamentally at a minimum of ~20 atoms and 55 times the wavelength of visible photons!! Truly incredible!

Best,

Mike

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