> On Nov 15, 2021, at 09:12, lkcl <luke.leighton@gmail.com> wrote:
[…]
> and, with things like this IC not being available - at all - despite it
> being an absolutely crucial component in Diesel Engine ECUs -
> because it's 250 nm high current high voltage near-military-grade
> standards, and the entire Foundry equipment which was
> single-suppliier was SCRAPPED because the frickin Automotive
> Industry stopped ordering...
This sounds like the type of project to start on for the equipment and process development. Bigger feature sizes, less complex packaging and sturdy part.
I’d be for publishing the information we learn, our tricks and “secret sauce” in some suitable open fashion: whether it be a Creative Commons license or something else. If we do, this could be a gigantic revolution in education for the next several classes of engineering students: undergraduate and graduate! (Provided we can enlist enough engineering professors who aren’t beholden to an NDA from some existing semiconductor fab or equipment manufacturer and are willing to publish results instead of patenting them.)
One person we probably want to ask if they want to help out is Sam Zeloof, he has a YouTube channel where he publishes videos about him building his own chips at home:
https://youtube.com/c/SamZeloof
Another person we'd want to ask is
https://youtube.com/c/HuygensOptics who has experience making oleds and optical equipment needed for making asics (he mostly uses them for making nickel(?) masks for optics experiments, rather than electronics though)
I'd also be interested in helping, I have quite a bit of knowledge of chemistry (though little practical experience) and >20yr of experience building electronics, mostly as a hobby. I've been working on Libre-SOC for about 3 years now.
Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend the meeting, since it's very early morning for me.
Jacob