The First Nanochips......

The First Nanochips
As scientists and engineers continue to push back the limits of chipmaking technology, they have quietly entered into the nanometer realm

By G. Dan Hutcheson

INNNOVATION BOOSTS the performance of microprocessors, providing techniques that go beyond shrinking the size of transistors. The chip shown here, enlarged some 50,000 times, improves speed and saves power by placing silicon for the transistors (light blue) above a layer of oxide (green).
Overview/Faster, Better Chips

For most people, the notion of harnessing nanotechnology for electronic circuitry suggests something wildly futuristic. In fact, if you have used a personal computer made in the past few years, your work was most likely processed by semiconductors built with nanometer-scale features. These immensely sophisticated microchips--or rather, nanochips--are now manufactured by the millions, yet the scientists and engineers responsible for their development receive little recognition. You might say that these people are the Rodney Dangerfields of nanotechnology. So here I would like to trumpet their accomplishments and explain how their efforts have maintained the steady advance in circuit performance to which consumers have grown accustomed.
The recent strides are certainly impressive, but, you might ask, is semiconductor manufacture really nanotechnology? Indeed it is. After all, the most widely accepted definition of that word applies to something with dimensions smaller than 100 nanometers, and the first transistor gates under this mark went into production in 2000. Integrated circuits coming to market now have gates that are a scant 50 nanometers wide. That's 50 billionths of a meter, about a thousandth the width of a human hair.


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I've read that Nanotechnology is going to really kick off in a decade, and i mean not just small circuits but some proper hardcore science! It'll revolutionize the Engineering industry by about 90%! With nanotechnology we'll work on the atomical (not sure if thast the word) level, meaning giant, crude chemical reactions to create steel for example wont be necessary. we wont waste a spot of material, and we'll create as much as is possible. And that's JUST a few industries, think about the medicinal advantages. Tiny robots that can be injected into your bloodstream and can monitor your blood pressure level, cholesterol, anything! of course these robots are a hell of a lot further away than the previously mentioned nanites (i think thast the right word) but once Nanotechnology takes off it will revolutionize everything! we'll discover things faster, well create more things faster and at lower prices. technology creates technology.

 

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Traditionally, computer chips are made by etching structures into the surface of a pure silicon wafer. Wafers are difficult to make; they start from a silicon crystal created by melting ultra-pure silicon granules. The silicon cools and hardens under special conditions, then individual crystal wafers are cut and ground smooth from the pure silicon ingot. Finally, various etching techniques create the transistors and other structures on the silicon wafer.A.K.A. Lithography where Masking is employed for etching transistors.

A company called Nanosys plans to change all that. The Palo Alto, CA company develops techniques to deposit silicon structures directly on a substrate, eliminating all the tedious melting, hardening, cutting, grinding and etching. They have developed many tiny shapes and devices, including transistors and wires.

Carbon chemistry is one of the most promising areas of nanotechnology research. Molecular carbon can take on many complex structures, from the C60 molecule discovered by Nobel prize winners Rick Smalley, Robert Curl and Harold Kroto, to gigantic tubes based on C60 chemistry.

Well, they are gigantic tubes by atomic scales. But in fact these structures are extremely small. A Massachusetts company called Nantero hopes to exploit carbon nanotubes to create ultra-dense, low power non-volatile memory.

Non-volatile memory, in the form of flash memory, is a common component in digital cameras, MP3 players, and USB storage devices. But flash memory is slow compared to the dynamic RAM memory in your desktop computer. Dynamic RAM is volatile and must be constantly refreshed with electrical power. Without power, your computer's memory drains within milliseconds.

Nantero's proposed NRAM technology will combine the speed of dynamic RAM with the non-volatile properties of flash RAM. A computer with NRAM could keep its operating system and data in memory all the time, even when turned off. You could switch off your laptop or desktop PC and start working again at any time, without the need for power standby mode or complex hibernation techniques.

Drive Smaller
Of course, sometimes the best idea is the one you already had. Hitachi's Micro Drive is a good example. Take your favorite hard drive technology, build it smaller than ever before, and cram it into a tiny package. Voila!

Well, perhaps it's not so simple. The early Micro Drives, originally made by IBM, were plagued with reliability problems. I personally know several Micro Drive owners left high and dry when their drives failed. But word on the street is that Hitachi has fixed the reliability problems. The latest Micro Drive crams 4 gigabytes into a package the size of a quarter, and it's the muscle behind Apple's latest high-end MP3 player, the iPod Mini.
...it goes on...

But on the other Hand take a look at this report...
Aug. 12, 2003 - Researchers at Texas Instruments and the University of North Texas in Denton received $2.2 million this summer to find a way to build computer chips half the size of those currently in use.

The new chips would be about 500 atoms across, said Phillip Matz, a TI researcher working on the project. By comparison, a human hair is about 100,000 atoms across. The goal is smaller, more powerful chips.
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About half the money is a National Science Foundation grant. The other half comes from contributed services from TI and UNT.

Most of the grant money will go to support the graduate students who will work on the project.

The grant is part of a nationwide push to help scientists deliver on the promise of nanotechnology, an emerging discipline geared toward making smaller and smaller devices.
*
"Our economy is currently being driven by shrinking chips," said Rick Reidy, a UNT project researcher. "If we, and people like us, are not successful, people will not be able to shrink their chips, and there will be an economic price to pay."

Computer chips have continuously gotten smaller since they were invented. Consumers win because they get machines that are smaller, smarter and cheaper. But if that type of innovation ceases, the economic fortunes of the companies involved stagnate, Reidy said.

To keep the economic engines revving, UNT and TI researchers are working on a problem that is blocking efforts to make chips even smaller: a kind of electron interference called cross-talk.

It's caused when electrons are uncontrolled. The researchers will try to get electrons to travel down copper wire in an orderly way.

"If you want electrons to do something useful, you have to direct them," said Dennis Mueller, a UNT physics professor.

Reidy said: "What you have is a bleed-through of electricity. As you get the wires closer together, the problems are worse, so the insulation has to keep getting better and better."

This is a recurring problem in nano research. The devices have gotten so small that scientists have to figure out ways to handle problems caused by their size.

"When you get down to that level, things stick when they should be slipping, and slip when they should be sticking," said Wade Adams, a nanotech expert at Rice University in Houston.

Sometimes, the components are so small that they just float away, Adams said. "You can't just put an atom somewhere and expect it to stay there," Adams said.

Finding a tool to handle something several molecules in size without damaging it can be difficult. Even with the right tool, some molecules will stick to the tool.

The process can be so frustrating that some researchers contend that using mechanical tools is a waste of time.

"You cannot use any mechanical force to manipulate molecules," said J.C. Chiao, associate professor of electrical engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington. "You use a laser tweezer. That uses optical force to manipulate molecules."

Others disagree.

"Clearly people are doing it," Mueller said, describing an early demonstration in which scientists at IBM used mechanical tools to drag xenon atoms that spelled out the company logo.

Nanotechnology was first popularized by science fiction writers. In the movie Fantastic Voyage, a miniature submarine injected into a man propelled itself through his bloodstream.

Chiao said he does not expect anything so extraordinary to come out of nanotechnology research anytime soon.

"We will see gradual improvements or enhancements in our daily lives, but not anything dramatic," Chiao said. "Before we actually have the sci-fi machines, a lot of things will have to happen along the way. I would say that robots that will be able to clean away the plaque from your bloodstream will not be available anytime soon."

The technology has shown promise. Smaller components can mean smarter machines. If you double the electronics that make your laptop computer useful, and it still fits in the same 10-pound package, the result is a more powerful computer, Chiao said.

That smarter computer would also use less energy than the older model, because the smaller the components, the less energy they need, Chiao said. Some researchers envision a day when complex devices might even be powered by body heat or solar energy.

Nanotechnology is a globally competitive endeavor that is attracting billions of dollars in investment.

The United States is planning to spend about $800 million on nanotechnology research next year, but Japan is spending about $1 billion this year, said James Von Ehr, chief executive officer and founder of Zyvez.

Texas is listed No. 5 in the nanotechnology business among states, but the state is at the bottom of the list in investment, said Von Ehr, who is also president of the Texas Nanotech Initiative, a consortium of universities and businesses promoting the industry.

"We are in a position to be among the leaders in the technology, but we will not stay there indefinitely," Von Ehr said. "This is a very aggressive field right now, and staying in the top five will be very difficult if we don't continue to invest. It may be that we decide that the future is somewhere else. But I'll be very disappointed if that happens."
~Zion
bye!

 

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