I have watched several youtube videos on how transistors work but all the explanations use a classic resin coated transistor with three prongs you can solder to you project . What I just can’t seem to grasp is how the that can be translated to a solid silicon disk.
Physically, how are the three layers separated (npn/pnp); and more importantly, how do you wire up a billion of them?
In: 1
In simple terms, they are not wired up but they themselves are also the wires.
You take a big polished slice of a silicone crystal, called a wafer.
Then you go through multiple very complex processes, including etching away material and depositing thin films of other materials to create tiny (microscopic) structures. These structures are your transistors and wires as well as many other electronic or mechanical components.
How all of this is done can vary a lot and depends on the chips you want to produce.
If you want to see the tiny structures, here is an electron microscope zoom into a microprocessor:
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