If you follow PC hardware prices, you’ll know AI demand has pushed memory prices higher as manufacturers prioritize memory for datacenters. To deal with that, you can pay through the nose, buy less memory, or … try to build your own DRAM.
Dr. Semiconductor is a YouTuber who joined the platform in February and has only published two videos so far. One shows his process of turning a backyard shed into a cleanroom tidy enough to make his own semiconductors, while the other shows him producing working sample memory cells.
The YouTuber opens his second video on the making of his sample chips with an acknowledgment that the whole experiment has been driven by RAM prices skyrocketing last year and into the beginning of 2026, leading to vendor quotes that constantly fluctuate and even delays in broadband expansions caused by a lack of memory chips.
Against that backdrop is Dr. Semiconductor, whose video walks through the process inside a tiny cleanroom equipped to make DIY RAM cells.
Like any good RAM manufacturing process, Dr. Semiconductor started by designing a 5×4 array of capacitors and transistors – barely a fraction of the number of cells on a modern DRAM chip – then transferring the design onto silicon, coating it with photoresist for patterning and etching, and doping parts of the chip with phosphorus to increase conductivity. He then built up microscopic layers one by one without any of the industrial automation available to Samsung, SK hynix, or Micron.
After making a few small sample chips, Dr. Semiconductor tested them using his parameter analyzers. Some additional DIY manipulation was necessary to probe the tiny chips, as the 5×4 array is small enough that the device had to be measured with micromanipulators and extremely fine probe tips.
“Because the devices are at the nanoscale you can’t just attach regular wires,” the self-described doctor explained. “So for testing purposes I have a number of micromanipulators with some incredibly fine probe tips in order to feed current and voltage into the device.”
The tests showed that the DIY RAM cells all functioned as expected, though higher voltage led to punch through due to the source and drain portions of each RAM cell being just a single micron apart. This “shows the trouble with scaling,” according to Dr. Semiconductor, but he said it won’t be a problem unless he tries to feed higher voltage into his memory.
As for the capacitors in the homemade chip, each was found to be able to hold 12.3 picofarads, which was right in line with what Dr. Semiconductor hoped to achieve, describing it as “pretty close to the perfect ideal theoretical of a little less than 15 pF I designed for.”
Unfortunately, the capacitors in the DIY RAM cells in his test chip were only able to hold a charge for around 4 milliseconds – far less than commercial RAM, which he noted can retain charge for more than 64 milliseconds.
Not perfect, but for a first try at creating homemade DRAM in a backyard microfab, it’s quite the start.
“This is awesome – first time ever RAM has been made at home,” Dr. Semiconductor said in the video. We can’t confirm that claim, but we’re not aware of anyone else making RAM in their backyard shed.
That said, the fact that it’s an array of just 5×4 cells means this RAM isn’t going to meet any important memory metrics anytime soon.
“While you can store data on it, you can’t run DOOM in it quite yet – this is just a few cells to prove it will work,” Dr. Semiconductor explained. He’s not done here, though. Next up is chaining a bunch of his homemade cells together to see if they can actually serve as memory for a PC.
When the results of that test might be published is unknown, but don’t get too excited: Just because one enterprising individual managed to fabricate homemade RAM cells doesn’t mean a cottage (or shed, to be fair) computing industry is likely to pop up overnight.
AI memory demand may become more efficient, and there may be early signs of pricing pressure easing, but the shortage is unlikely to end anytime soon. Buckle up, or consider building your own fab. ®