How Is a Processor Made?

Processors consist of electrical switches called "transistors," each capable of representing either a 0 or a 1. This allows them to use any value necessary to perform calculations software instructions demand. Thus, processor manufacture boils down a method of fabricating and arranging billions of transistors just nanometers wide.

Etching

• Silicon undergoes purification until it contains one non-silicon atom for every billion silicon atoms. According to CPU Shack, a saw divides the silicon into wafers, which are then polished and coated with a photo resist finish. Ultraviolet light shines through a stencil containing circuit traces, thus printing the transistor patterns for multiple processors onto a single wafer. Chemical etching grafts the patterns into the wafer.

Layering

• The addition of chemical impurities around transistor patterns creates a non-conductive insulating layer. Further etching creates three holes exposing the conductive layer. A copper sulphate solution fills these holes, creating terminals that allow the conductive layer sandwiched around the insulation to accept current, alter its charge, and thus, toggle between 0 and 1. Each of these "sandwiches" is now a transistor.

Wiring

• Layers of metal wires link the transistors, forming groups that manipulate flowing current in different ways, according to the website Gizmodo. This allows them to perform calculations on the data the transistors represent.

Assembly

• A cutting process separates each individual collection of transistors (i.e. processor) from the wafer. According to the Sudhian tech news website, the processor is placed between a die that links it to the motherboard socket and a thermal spreader that allows the cooling fan to efficiently dissipate its heat.