eli5 How are transistors made so crazy small?
In: 7
* We’ve developed a process where we can create transistors out of a single piece of material that we “inject” with different stuff to change it’s electrical properties.
* We’ve also figured out that we can choose where to inject the stuff by applying a layer of paint to the transistor material.
* If we create patterns in the paint, we can control which areas get the injection and which don’t.
* Here is the really fancy part.
* We figured out that we can make paint that is sensitive to light.
* The light “bakes” it and makes it stay.
* The areas that don’t get baked can have the paint washed away.
* Now we use very powerful projectors that can project very very precise images on a super tiny scale.
* These projectors shine those intricate patterns onto super tiny areas of the transistor material and bake the paint into those patterns.
* Then we wash away the paint that didn’t get baked.
* That exposes the material so we can inject the stuff that changes the electrical properties of just that part of the transistor.
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