Several more carefully targeted deposition and erosion steps later, we are ready for the metallization of the silicon chip. A tiny stencil is used to accurately spray the sample with aluminum, the excess stripped away, and the fully layered and formed chip is at last ready for some tests!
The freshly fabricated DRAM cells are so small that wires can’t be used to hook them up to test machinery by the DIYers. Micromanipulator probes are precisely positioned instead. The good news is that Dr. Semiconductor was pleased with his finished DRAM chips, as cells were measured to offer a hobbyist sweet spot of 12pF capacitance.
At the end of the video, the doc teases that he’s going to build on this significant, though admittedly small-scale, achievement. He’s looking to prepare a much larger array of finished memory cells and says that they will be prepared to “hook up to a PC.” Stay tuned for the PC-scale practical implementation, folks.
We reported on Dr. Semiconductor's creation of this garden shed-based cleanroom back in March.
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Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-20/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Mark Tyson Social Links Navigation News Editor Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
bit_user It's cool that someone managed to do DIY photo-lithography, but this is obviously not going to provide RAM with generally usable capacities. I'd be surprised if he could achieve even the density of mass-produced RAM from 30 years ago. Reply
Pierce2623 I get tired of people saying RAM manufacturers can’t keep up with demand. They could if they wanted to. They already cut production way back from COVID levels and won’t increase it again because they’re a cartel wanting prices to stay stupid. Reply
bit_user Pierce2623 said: I get tired of people saying RAM manufacturers can’t keep up with demand. They could if they wanted to. No, they literally can't. It takes several years to build additional fab capacity. The current level of demand was completely unanticipated. Reply
Paul Dodd Pierce2623 said: I get tired of people saying RAM manufacturers can’t keep up with demand. They could if they wanted to. They already cut production way back from COVID levels and won’t increase it again because they’re a cartel wanting prices to stay stupid. Reply
Paul Dodd The data doesn't support you. Production in 2025 was more than double that in 2020. Reply
Paul Dodd Now we need something like a laser 3D printer for chips. You can feed it with a stack of silicon wafers, various materials and after some hours, the finished chips are in the hopper. As there will be several stages, it could be say 3 times the size. Reply
bit_user Paul Dodd said: Now we need something like a laser 3D printer for chips. You can feed it with a stack of silicon wafers, various materials and after some hours, the finished chips are in the hopper. As there will be several stages, it could be say 3 times the size. IIRC, Japan's Rapidus has some sort of printing-based technology. Possibly developed by Canon. Reply
omnichad bit_user said: It's cool that someone managed to do DIY photo-lithography, but this is obviously not going to provide RAM with generally usable capacities. I'd be surprised if he could achieve even the density of mass-produced RAM from 30 years ago. And if it's not dense enough, it also won't run cool enough to hit DDR4 or DDR5 clock speeds. Reply
bit_user omnichad said: And if it's not dense enough, it also won't run cool enough to hit DDR4 or DDR5 clock speeds. It won't be, but you're right that power efficiency is also something that comes with smaller node sizes. Higher clock frequencies, as well. Reply
AlexAlexAlexApex bit_user said: It won't be, but you're right that power efficiency is also something that comes with smaller node sizes. Higher clock frequencies, as well. Pierce2623 said: I get tired of people saying RAM manufacturers can’t keep up with demand. They could if they wanted to. They already cut production way back from COVID levels and won’t increase it again because they’re a cartel wanting prices to stay stupid. I don't follow. In a free market, yes – low supply will increase prices. But if (as you suggest) the manufacturers were in a cartel, they could each make as much ram as possible, and secretly agree to still sell it at a high price, i.e. rather than undercut one another as they would in a free market. That's the whole point of a cartel (and why they're not allowed). Reply
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/dr-semiconductor-successfully-fabs-ram-in-garden-shed-cleanroom-array-of-memory-cells-with-12pf-capacitance-groundwork-for-much-larger-future-array#main
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