http://www.physorg.com/news97386010.html

Self Assembling Chips

This microprocessor cross section shows empty space in between the chip's
wiring. Wires are usually insulated with a glass-like material. IBM has
integrated self-assembly techniques, long confined to laboratories, with its
manufacturing lines to create a test version of its latest microprocessors
that use vacuum gaps to insulate the miles of nano-scale wire that connect
hundreds of millions of transistors. The breakthrough reduces electrical
interference, raises processor performance, and lowers energy consumption.
Credit: IBM

In nature a phenomenon called "self assembly" is a delicate process that
forms seashells, creates the enamel on teeth and transforms water into
complex snowflakes. IBM Research has, for the first time ever, applied "self
assembly" to create computer chips that are faster and smaller than ever
before. IBM has figured out how to control and perfect the self assembly
process to create trillions of tiny, nano-sized holes across a chip, which
speed electrons that flow across wires inside the chip and reducing the
power consumed by 15 percent. These chips will go into our everyday
electronics such as cell phones, computers and gaming consoles, an advance
that is set to drive the equivalent of two generations of Moore's Law.
IBM today announced the first-ever application of a breakthrough
self-assembling nanotechnology to conventional chip manufacturing, borrowing
a process from nature to build the next generation computer chips. The
natural pattern-creating process that forms seashells, snowflakes, and
enamel on teeth has been harnessed by IBM to form trillions of holes to
create insulating vacuums around the miles of nano-scale wires packed next
to each other inside each computer chip.

In chips running in IBM labs using the technique, the researchers have
proven that the electrical signals on the chips can flow 35 percent faster,
or the chips can consume 15 percent less energy compared to the most
advanced chips using conventional techniques.

The IBM patented self-assembly process moves a nanotechnology manufacturing
method that had shown promise in laboratories into a commercial
manufacturing environment for the first time, providing the equivalent of
two generations of Moore's Law wiring performance improvementsin a single
step, using conventional manufacturing techniques.

This new form of insulation, commonly referred to as "airgaps" by
scientists, is a misnomer, as the gaps are actually a vacuum, absent of air.
The technique deployed by IBM causes a vacuum to form between the copper
wires on a computer chip, allowing electrical signals to flow faster, while
consuming less electrical power. The self-assembly process enables the
nano-scale patterning required to form the gaps; this patterning is
considerably smaller than current lithographic techniques can achieve.

A vacuum is believed to be the ultimate insulator for what is known as
wiring capacitance, which occurs when two conductors, in this case adjacent
wires on a chip, sap or siphon electrical energy from one another,
generating undesirable heat and slowing the speed at which data can move
through a chip.

Until now, chip designers often were forced to fight capacitance issues by
pushing ever more power through chips creating, in the process, a range of
other problems. They have also used insulators with better insulating
capability, but these insulators have become tenuously fragile as chip
features get smaller and smaller, and their insulating properties do not
compare to those of a vacuum.

The self-assembly process already has been integrated with IBM's
state-of-the-art manufacturing line in East Fishkill, New York and is
expected to be fully incorporated in IBM's manufacturing lines and used in
chips in 2009. The chips will be used in IBM's server product lines and
thereafter for chips IBM builds for other companies.

"This is the first time anyone has proven the ability to synthesize mass
quantities of these self-assembled polymers and integrate them into an
existing manufacturing process with great yield results," said Dan
Edelstein, IBM Fellow and chief scientist of the self-assembly airgap
project. "By moving self assembly from the lab to the fab, we are able to
make chips that are smaller, faster and consume less power than existing
materials and design architectures allow."

Edelstein led the IBM team that invented the technique to use copper wiring
in computer chips instead of aluminum, now a standard method for producing
chips, ushering in a decade of chip innovations from the IBM labs that
transformed how chips were built and used across many industries and
applications.

The Secret of Self Assembly

The secret of IBM's breakthrough lies in how the IBM scientists' moved the
self-assembly process from the laboratory to a production manufacturing
environment in a way that can potentially yield millions of chips with
consistent, high performance results.

Today, chips are manufactured with copper wiring surrounded by an insulator,
which involves using a mask to create circuit patterns by beaming light
through the mask and later chemically removing the parts that are not
needed.

The new technique to make airgaps by self-assembly skips the masking and
light-etching process. Instead IBM scientists discovered the right mix of
compounds, which they pour onto a silicon wafer with the wired chip
patterns, then bake it.

This patented process provides the right environment for the compounds to
assemble in a directed manner, creating trillions of uniform, nano-scale
holes across an entire 300 millimeter wafer. These holes are just 20
nanometers in diameter, up to five times smaller than would be possible
using today's most advanced lithography technique.

Once the holes are formed, the carbon silicate glass is removed, creating a
vacuum between the wires -- known as the airgap -- allowing the electrical
signals to either flow 35 percent faster, or to consume 15 percent less
energy.

Self assembly is a concept scientists have been studying at IBM and in labs
around the world as a potential technique to create materials useful for
building computer chips. The concept occurs in nature every day, it is how
enamel is formed on our teeth, the process that creates seashells and is
what transforms water into complex snowflakes. The major difference is,
while the processes that occur in nature are all unique, IBM has been able
to direct the self-assembly process to form trillions of holes that are all
similar.

This new technology can be incorporated into any standard CMOS manufacturing
line, without disruption or new tooling. The self assembly process was
jointly invented between IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose,
California and the T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown, New York.

Source: IBM
-- 
Ken

"Buddhism elucidates why we are sentient."
"Buddhism follows thought throughout the Universe."
"Karma means that you don't get away with anything."