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Sam Zeloof
Personal blog · sam.zeloof.xyzhardwarescience
Sam Zeloof's personal blog at sam.zeloof.xyz covers hardware and science. Since 2017, 55 different Hacker News readers have linked it 62 times, most often “Homemade IC (2018)”. The last post was in 2023, but the archive is still widely read.
62mentions?
55HN people?
2017–2026first – last linked?
Most-linked posts?
- Homemade IC (2018)17 people · 18 mentions · first linked 2018-04-29
- Sam Zeloof “It's not enough to have a dream, you have to have a garage.”12 people · 13 mentions · first linked 2017-06-23
- Second IC9 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2021-08-13
- Home Chip Fab7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2019-03-19
- /category/semiconductor/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-06-16
- /maskless-photolithography/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-04-29
- Z2 – Lithographically fabricated IC in a garage fab2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-09-29
What Hacker News says?
fixing the url http://sam.zeloof.xyz/
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on “Google offers free fabbing for 130nm open-source chips”Submitted A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit as a story · 712 points
HN discussionHave a mini-course into maskless photolithography[1][2], and find out how an old DLP projector combined with some advanced optics can yield this: http://sam.zeloof.xyz/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/IMG_2917-e1... Take a tour in a home fab: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrmqZ0hgAXk His website and Youtube channel are so richly filled with knowledge that so desperately needs to be in the public domain, instead of being…
Comment linking /maskless-photolithography/
on “A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit”Submitted Home Chip Fab as a story · 566 points
HN discussionThe amount of coorp marketing bullshit was outstanding again: > The state-of-the-art technology in Bosch's new semiconductor factory in Dresden shows what outstanding results can be achieved when industry and government join forces," said European Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager. who just cites the Bosch press officer, who even dared to mention AI and self-driving cars. In reality this far away from "st…
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on “Bosch opens German chip plant”Submitted Second IC as a story · 406 points
HN discussionSure: http://sam.zeloof.xyz/first-ic/
Comment linking /first-ic/
on “From Nand to Tetris (2017)”Submitted Z2 – Lithographically fabricated IC in a garage fab as a story · 357 points
HN discussionThis might be of interest although quite an investment in both knowledge and equipment. Home built IC. http://sam.zeloof.xyz/first-ic/
Comment linking /first-ic/
on “NandGame – Build a Computer from Scratch”Submitted Homemade IC (2018) as a story · 247 points
HN discussionI think a lot of folks underestimate how fabulously complicated it is to fab a chip. Yes, you can diy it in your garage, here's a wonderful implementation. http://sam.zeloof.xyz/first-ic/ But take a look at the specialized tools they used. Heck, think about proper handling of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrofluoric_acid and this is just a simple amp. imagine trying to make something with lots of gates? Making a s…
Comment linking /first-ic/
on “The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences”Submitted A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit (2018) as a story · 114 points
HN discussionNo, Sam Zeloof started from blank silicon wafers and did four layers of photolithography to produce PMOS gates. He used boric acid for the boron diffusion. He sputtered an aluminum layer on top for the metal and etched it with phosphoric acid. http://sam.zeloof.xyz/first-ic/
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on “How to make a CPU – a simple picture-based explanation”Submitted First made-at-home integrated circuits using litography as a story · 19 points
HN discussionNo, I don't think so. But it's not because of the chemicals or machines. There's not really any demand for it. Most hobbyist "ICs" are fully digital and can already be realized on an FPGA. For simpler applications, you can probably program a microcontroller to do what you want. Integrated circuits are appealing to industry because they're integrated - they can be smaller and they reduce cost (long term; still need t…
Comment linking /second-ic/
on “How to make a CPU – a simple picture-based explanation”Submitted First IC :) as a story · 8 points
HN discussionWell, this chap managed to make his own chips at home: http://sam.zeloof.xyz/category/semiconductor/ Plus an electron microscope!
Comment linking /category/semiconductor/
on “How to make a CPU – a simple picture-based explanation”Submitted First integrated circuit as a story · 4 points
HN discussionFor a real case of someone making integrated circuits at home, this boy did it: http://sam.zeloof.xyz/ for real.
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on “How to make a CPU – a simple picture-based explanation”Submitted Zeloof Z2 homemade silicon integrated circuit as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThis is really fascinating. I apologize if this is a silly question but under the Fabrication section there is a pic titled "physical structure(Texas Instruments, 1997.)" My question is why do all of the components always look so "puffy" or "fuzzy" in these chip zoom-in pics? I guess I'm always surprised that such a precision process produces something with such imperfect looking shapes. Or are these slightly amorph…
Comment linking /wp-content/uploads/2018/04/na_1.png
on “Home Chip Fab”Submitted Second IC – Homemade 1000 transistor array chip as a story · 1 points
HN discussion> Instead of a standard HF etch, a buffered oxide etch of NH4F (Ammonium Fluoride) in HF can be used to control the etch rate and photoresist lifting. I use approximately 20-30g of 100% NH4F per 50mL of HF (stock whink rust remover) and etch time for 6000Å SiO2 is 20min at 20C. A couple drops of Triton X-100 nonionic surfactant may be added to the BOE to improve etch uniformity, wetting, and ensure consistency throu…
Comment linking /sio2-patterning/
on “22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage”Submitted Sam Zeloof “It's not enough to have a dream, you have to have a garage.” as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSee also Sam Zeelof's DIY silicon fab. Even using commercial equipment and supplies, the amount of work needed to make even the most rudimentary IC is quite staggering. http://sam.zeloof.xyz/category/semiconductor/
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on “Nvidia's $99 Jetson Nano Is an AI Computer for DIY Enthusiasts”From "scratch," as in raw materials, absolutely not. Even the most dedicated home-fabrication hobbyists ( http://sam.zeloof.xyz/first-ic/ ) have come nowhere near achieving the transistor density required to construct the "OberonStation's" CPU or memory, whether taped out (laid into a chip design using actual silicon gates) or built using a programmable gate array. From a circuit board etched by someone else and PCB…
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on “Project Oberon”Personally I agree, but the world doesn't seem to. Their first project ( https://sam.zeloof.xyz/first-ic/ ) was all the way back in 2018, and it doesn't seem like it changed all too much (yet), while since I read the first blog post in 2018, I also thought we would have reached a much more mature DIY ecosystem by now. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited too about it, and can't wait to personally do some experiments as w…
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on “Z2 – Lithographically fabricated IC in a garage fab”Sam Zeloof alone managed to manufacture chips with the early 1970s technology in his garage using old fab equipment bought cheap (sadly don't remember the exact budget): http://sam.zeloof.xyz/ Maybe with more people and more capital this could be scaled to something that can be sold, like replicas of classic CPUs.
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on “Ask HN: What can you realistically manufacture in your garage?”It's a little weird to me. I see in the comments 50 cent chips going for 75 dollars. The old process chips _seem_ diy able - http://sam.zeloof.xyz/first-ic/ Obviously it would take me, like, a year or two to get anything to work. But I'd guess there are folks out there that could spin up far far faster. I guess I don't understand why there isn't much, or any, labor intensive fabs combining on line, with a plan to au…
Comment linking /first-ic/
on “Ask HN: Why is there a chip shortage?”It's part of the causal chain, but far from the beginning . The root problem, as far as humanly controllable things go, is the way we manufacture computer hardware. That's upstream of the centralized structure of the Internet which all of human civilization is beginning to mirror. Computers can't replicate on their own, so they need entire corporations/societies to build them. A computer's reproductive locus of cont…
Comment linking /category/semiconductor/
on “Mark Zuckerberg: "Cambridge Analytica" (2017)”
