Doing anything that requires measurements in nanometers is pretty difficult, and seems like it would require some pretty sophisticated equipment. But when the task at hand is growing oxide layers on silicon chips in preparation for making your own integrated circuits, it turns out that the old Mark 1 eyeball is all you need.

Alert readers may recall that [ProjectsInFlight] teased this process in his previous video, which covered the design and construction of a DIY tube furnace. In case you missed that, a tube furnace is basically a long, fused quartz tube wrapped in electrical heating elements and lots of insulation, which is designed to reach the very high temperatures needed when making integrated circuits. The tube furnace proved itself up to the task by creating a thin layer of silicon dioxide on a scrap of silicon wafer. Continue reading “Growing Oxides On Silicon On The Road To DIY Semiconductors” →