![An old school flatpak IC. [4032x3024 - 2.59MB]](https://pic8.co/sh/d2ymSE.jpg){kind=link}
Early 70s by the other material in the drawer.
The exposed die in that device looks ancient. If it was from the early/mid 70s, that die probably came from a 3" or 4" wafer! Not even sub-micron. Lol! They make 300mm wafers now (18" diameter) with geometries in the nanometers. Lots of blood, sweat and tears expended to advance the technology over the years. It was a fun ride but I'm glad I got off in 2004. That high tech shit can totally consume your life for years on end if you let it ... and there is always an array of new barriers to break after breaking through that last one ... a never ending challenge.
Yeah the tech changes so quickly. I suspect the lab at OSU was probably on the bleeding edge here.
OSU probably had some of the best equipment available in the day. I'm not familiar with any wafer fabs in that vicinity back then. My facility was built in 1964 (Fairchild) and could very well have made that die.
In the 1970s through early 1990s we manufactured classified devices for DARPA/Maryland. We fabbed and shipped wafers, ET only, no sort, packaging or final test. We didn't even know what the device functions were. Very secret stuff at the time.
(post is archived)