To facilitate chips to run faster than before by consuming less energy, IBM has developed a new process known as airgap that copies nature creation of seashells and snowflakes.
This new process facilitates trillions of microscopic vacuum holes to be placed between the copper wires in chips to act as an insulator and also simplifies problems of electrical energy leakages among wires by creating an unwanted heat.
The company also pronounced that this new innovation will allow chips to run 5% faster than before and will also offer 15 % less energy consumption as compared to other predecessors in its segment.
Though, the self-assembled polymers are developed since 2001 but IBM has developed a new technique to control the interaction between self-assembling molecules, called diblock copolymers, to create the vacuum holes.
Chief scientist of the self-assembly airgap project and IBM researcher Mr. Edlestein said:
We have managed to harness the kinds of processes we see in nature to make regular patterns - such as the layers of enamel on your teeth, or the shape of a seashell if you look under a microscope
It is also noteworthy that for the first time someone has managed to produce mass quantities by integrating them into a manufacturing process with high yields.
This controlled interaction between molecules builds series of evenly-spaced dots of only 20-nanometres in diameter (One nanometre is about a million times smaller than the size of a pinhead). The dots are then etched away in a chemical process to form holes which are then capped to create a vacuum. The properties of a vacuum than simply destroys the present use of silicon dioxide as an insulator.
The senior research associate at Cambridge University Dr Douglas Paul, said:
The big breakthrough is getting it into a manufacturing process and producing 300mm diameter wafers with the process working. This is never easy as the yields need to be near perfect for every single process stage and there are hundreds in a full wafer to get circuits to operate with the billion transistors or so now in production
Initially, the chip will be used in IBM’s server machines those are principally used by businesses or research groups and after sometimes this new process will be available for the firm’s semiconductor partners.
Via:
BBC
