alt Hacker NewsZ2 – Lithographically fabricated IC in a garage fab
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The timing of this share is crazy, since I was just looking around a few days ago to see if there were any guides or even kits for doing photolithography at home. It's part of my mission to demystify modern technology for my kids. I couldn't find anything, so this is excellent to see. Far too complex for my kids ages, but it might be cool to replicate at least part of this amazing project when they're older.
Replicating late 70s chip fab in one's parents' garage. Incredible honestly, given that the microprocessor is probably the most complex human invention.
I was like, this seems like a small machine could automate a lot of it, now that the number of steps are down to around what ECN2 film dev requires…
Of course, that’s what they are doing it seems! https://atomicsemi.com/
remember when JLCPCB became popular a few years ago and completely flipped hobby electronics upside down? I don't know how possible it is but it would be really cool if that happens in a few years with semiconductors. it's kind of mad that they've dominated our lives since the 1970s but you can only make them if you're a large company with millions of dollars (or several years, a big garage and lots of equipment as seen here). or tiny tapeout.
This is impressive work. Every time I see hobbyist-scale semiconductor projects, it reminds me how much innovation still happens outside big labs. Curious how far this approach can scale.
Awesome! I wouldn't have thought that it is possible to make ICs in a garage. Of course it requires a lot of knowledge, etc. But still, not a multi-billion dollar clean room with specialist equipment.
(2021)
Awesome!
cant wait to see what his latest venture will bring about
allegedly jim keller is one of the investors!
Love this stuff.
Followed a couple of links and ended up on his brother's page, reading about another example of the anti-immigrant insanity that's taken hold of this country: https://adam.zeloof.xyz/2025/04/01/karim/ . So sad.
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Although this is in 2021, it's great to see that Sam Zeloof also made Atomic Semi [0].
A display of "just doing things", no permission needed and no need for barriers and red tape.
It is another reason why I have huge promise for Substrate [1] founded by James Proud (UK native moved to US) another display of "just doing things".
However in Europe and the UK, it's "this law allows you to do this, this and this", "we've changed the law, here is a massive immediate fine", "ban encryption" (this nearly happened), "ban maths", "we are the first to regulate and ban this".
It is no wonder the US will continue to be great at building things.
This isn't just awesome, this is world changing. Fabricating our own hardware at home is the hardware equivalent of writing our own free software at home. This will help ensure our long term computing freedom.