Homebrew NMOS Transistor Step by Step - So Easy Even Jeri Can Do It
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN points to it as the classic example of home-made semiconductors and a fun way to go down to the transistor level.
What it is
Jeri Ellsworth shows step by step how to make an NMOS transistor at home using a kiln, rust remover, spin-on dopant, eBay wafers and vinyl stickers.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2010 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Recommends rrmm · 2012-11 · on “Build your own FPGA”
Check out Jeri Ellsworth's homebrow NMOS transistor for some real fun. Just get your bare silicon wafer from E-bay and have at it. [this video]
Recommends DanBC · 2013-07 · on “Valve's flat management structure 'like high school'”
Jeri Ellsworth, for people who don't know, does really interesting hardware stuff. "TSA body imaging at home" ( [LINK] ) "Home made EL wire" ( [LINK] ) "Recording Audio onto floppy discs" ( [LINK] ) "Home made transistor" ( [LINK] ) "Homebrew NMOS transistor" ( [this video] )
Recommends didericis · 2020-12 · on “Become Shell Literate”
Another book recommendation: "Elements of Computing Systems" by Noam Nisan and Shimon Schocken. It doesn't go all the way down to the physics of semiconductors, but it goes down to logic gates and all the way up to tetris (there's a related course/website called nand to tetris: [LINK] ) If you want to go further down, check out Jeri Ellsworth's old videos where she built a transistor at home: [this video]
Cites jws · 2010-08 · on “Homebrew silicon fab”
Google to the rescue![1] [this video] [1] Though when I googled "Jeri Ellsworth", Google suggestions helpfully suggested I would be interested in her cleavage. Shame on you, internet! [2] I wonder what happened to the fatmanandcircuitgirl site. I was watching them build a pinball machine and then it just stopped updating.
Cites Luyt · 2011-08 · on “Pentium-III autopsy”
Jeri Ellsworth makes NMOS transistors on silicon wafer chips at home, with an oven, rust remover and some other home chemicals: [this video]
Cites DanBC · 2013-04 · on “How I coded in 1985”
( [this video] ) for transistors, but it feels like cheating. Relays are doable from scratch (mining and refining copper; winding coils, etc etc) but it's going to be pretty hard work and you're going to have a very slow computer at the end of it.
Cites userbinator · 2021-11 · on “How to make a CPU – a simple picture-based explanation”
Jeri Ellsworth has gone "deeper" into the process and made a few transistors, although at a much larger scale: [this video] [LINK]
Cites mikewarot · 2023-10 · on “22-Year-Old Builds Chips in His Parents' Garage (2022)”
I've been following home-made semiconductors since Jeri Ellsworth made her own NMOS FETs in 2010.[1] When Sam managed to make his own ICs, I was happy for him, and for the hobby. Now he seems to be on the verge of democratizing access to semiconductor production in very low volumes. I've got my own project to try out once I can get my hands on it.[2] Who knows, petaflop chips made in the garage could be right around the corner, in less than 2 decades! [1] [this video] [2] [LINK]