Eli5: How are they able to make transistors so extremely small?

Question

Eli5: How are they able to make transistors so extremely small?

In: 11

Answer 1

Transistors are just a collection of p doped silicon, n doped silicon, and then more p doped. (Or npn depending on the type of transistor). It’s all about how we make them. We take a silicon wafer and add atoms or remove layers atoms at a time. We can also use lasers and projections to basically draw shapes on the wafers as small as the wavelength of light. These are structures so small we can’t even use light to see them.