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pclmulqdq 2 days ago

Fun fact about "antennas" in chip manufacturing: They have nothing to do with actual antennas. Charge can build up on long wires during manufacturing because the chemicals involved are not neutral and have some interactions with exposed wires. That charge needs to go somewhere to protect the rest of the circuits. There's nothing RF about this.

Later technologies (28 nm and below) have extensive design rules around prevention of "antenna" effects.

anonymous_user9 2 days ago | parent [-]

I think that’s incorrect. The article and the Wikipedia page on the antenna effect say antenna effects are caused by plasma etching, which uses RF to create the plasma.

kens 2 days ago | parent [-]

It's a bit confusing. The plasma is created by RF, but the RF doesn't cause the antenna effect (nor do "chemicals"). The charged ions and electrons in the plasma are what cause the charge buildup. The wire acts as an antenna in a metaphorical sense, not a literal sense, as I mentioned in Footnote 3.