Computer microchips could become smaller, faster and cheaper, thanks to scientists in the United States who have developed a speedier method of printing minuscule patterns on silicon chips.
The discovery, by Stephen Chou and fellow scientists at Princeton University in New Jersey, could allow electronics manufacturers to increase the density of transistors on silicon chips by 100- fold and streamline production at the same time.
Instead of taking 10 or 20 minutes to make a computer chip, the electrical engineers have imprinted features measuring I0 nanometers, or 10 millionths of a millimeter, on a computer chip in a quarter of a millionth of a second.
The achievement, which could pave the way for more powerful computers and memory chips, is reported in the science journal Nature.
"You just imprint the pattern directly into the silicon. You not only reduce the steps, you can do it in nanoseconds," Chou said in a statement.
Silicon chips are minute slices of semiconducting material made to carry out functions in everything from toasters and mobile phones to giant corporate computers.
Scientists had been looking for a replacement for silicon because they thought it would be impossible to improve the silicon chip, which would limit advancements in chip size and speed.
Chou has done away with etching, the normal way to make small patterns in silicon, and pressed a mould against a piece of silicon and applied a laser pulse for just 20 billionths of a second. It melts and resolidifies around mould.
"Here we do not need to use all those steps," Chou said. "Scientifically, people are still trying to understand how it works, because it is amazing that it works at all."
He calls the method Laser-Assisted Direct Imprint or LADI. Princeton University is applying for a patent on the technique. In a commentary on the research in Nature, Fabian Pease, of Stanford University, said the achievement will allow electronics manufacturers to continue the pace of miniaturization and keep Moore’s laws on track.
Moore’s Law, observed by Intel Corp, co-founder Gordon Moore in 196.5, posits that the number of transistors on a semiconductor doubles roughly every 18 months.
"A new imprinting technology for the production of silicon chips, introduced by Chou et al, could keep us on track," Pease said, adding that the law could hold for possibly another two decades. What is the significance of the new technology