Nanotech breakthrough pave way for smaller and faster computers

Posted on 29 Sep 2008 at 14:17

Scientists at the University of California have created a nanotechnology process that could pave the way for smaller, faster, and more efficient computers.

A multidisciplinary team from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) has developed the process for creating features on silicon wafers that are between five and 20 nanometers thick. A nanometer is the thickness of one-thousandth of a human hair.

The technique, dubbed block co-polymer lithography, may be used in the manufacture of integrated circuit chips as early as 2011, according to the researchers.

"We've come up with this new blending approach, called block co-polymer lithography, or BCP," said Craig Hawker, materials professor and director of the UCSB's Materials Research Laboratory.

"It essentially relies on a natural self-assembly process. Just like proteins in the body, these molecules come together and self assemble into a pattern. And so we use that pattern as our lithographic tool, to make patterns on the silicon wafer."

Using this technique, the size of the features is about the same as that of the molecules. They are very small, between five and 20 nanometers.

"With this strategy, we can make many more features," said Hawker, "And hence we can pack the transistors closer together and everything else closer together -- using this new form of lithography."

Five manufacturers, including Intel and IBM, helped fund the research, along with the National Science Foundation and other sponsors.

Author: Dawinderpal Sahota

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