Thursday, May 26, 2022
SCIENMAG: Latest Science and Health News
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Scienmag - Latest science news from science magazine
No Result
View All Result
Home SCIENCE NEWS Technology and Engineering

PPPL findings could lead to ever-more powerful microchips and supercomputers

March 8, 2022
in Technology and Engineering
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The information age created over nearly 60 years has given the world the internet, smart phones and lightning-fast computers. Making this possible has been the doubling of the number of transistors that can be packed onto a computer chip roughly every two years, giving rise to billions of atomic-scale transistors that now fit on a fingernail-sized chip. Such “atomic scale” lengths are so tiny that individual atoms can be seen and counted in them.

Joseph Vella and David Graves

Credit: Ben Marshall for photo of Vella; Graves photo courtesy of Princeton University Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. Collage by Kiran Sudarsanan.

The information age created over nearly 60 years has given the world the internet, smart phones and lightning-fast computers. Making this possible has been the doubling of the number of transistors that can be packed onto a computer chip roughly every two years, giving rise to billions of atomic-scale transistors that now fit on a fingernail-sized chip. Such “atomic scale” lengths are so tiny that individual atoms can be seen and counted in them.

Physical limit

With this doubling now rapidly approaching a physical limit, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) has joined industry efforts to extend the process and develop new ways to produce ever-more capable, efficient, and cost-effective chips. Laboratory scientists have now accurately predicted through modeling a key step in atomic-scale chip fabrication in the first PPPL study under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Lam Research Corp., a world-wide supplier of chip-making equipment.

“This would be one little piece in the whole process,” said David Graves, associate laboratory director for low-temperature plasma surface interactions, a professor in the Princeton Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and co-author of a paper that outlines the findings in the Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B. Insights gained through modeling, he said, “can lead to all sorts of good things, and that’s why this effort at the Lab has got some promise.”

While the shrinkage can’t go on much longer, “it hasn’t completely reached an end,” he said. “Industry has been successful to date in using mainly empirical methods to develop innovative new processes but a deeper fundamental understanding will speed this process. Fundamental studies take time and require expertise industry does not always have,” he said. “This creates a strong incentive for laboratories to take on the work.”

The PPPL scientists modeled what is called “atomic layer etching” (ALE), an increasingly critical fabrication step that aims to remove single atomic layers from a surface at a time. This process can be used to etch complex three-dimensional structures with critical dimensions that are thousands of times thinner than a human hair into a film on a silicon wafer.

Basic agreement

“The simulations basically agreed with experiments as a first step and could lead to improved understanding of the use of ALE for atomic-scale etching,” said Joseph Vella, a post-doctoral fellow at PPPL and lead author of the journal paper. Improved understanding will enable PPPL to investigate such things as the extent of surface damage and the degree of roughness developed during ALE, he said, “and this all starts with building our fundamental understanding of atomic layer etching.”

The model simulated the sequential use of chlorine gas and argon plasma ions to control the silicon etch process on an atomic scale. Plasma, or ionized gas, is a mixture consisting of free electrons, positively charged ions and neutral molecules. The plasma used in semiconductor device processing is near room temperature, in contrast to the ultra-hot plasma used in fusion experiments.

“A surprise empirical finding from Lam Research was that the ALE process became particularly effective when the ion energies were quite a bit higher than the ones we started with,” Graves said. “So that will be our next step in the simulations — to see if we can understand what’s happening when the ion energy is much higher and why it’s so good.”

Going forward, “the semiconductor industry as a whole is contemplating a major expansion in the materials and the types of devices to be used, and this expansion will also have to be processed with atomic scale precision,” he said. “The U.S. goal is to lead the world in using science to tackle important industrial problems,” he said, “and our work is part of that.”

This study was partially supported by the DOE Office of Science. Coauthors included David Humbird of DWH Consulting in Centennial, Colorado.

PPPL, on Princeton University’s Forrestal Campus in Plainsboro, N.J., is devoted to creating new knowledge about the physics of plasmas — ultra-hot, charged gases — and to developing practical solutions for the creation of fusion energy. The Laboratory is managed by the University for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit energy.gov/science



Journal

Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology

DOI

10.1116/6.0001681

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Molecular dynamics study of silicon atomic layer etching by chorine gas and argon ions

Article Publication Date

10-Feb-2022

Tags: findingsleadmicrochipspowerfulPPPLSupercomputers
Share26Tweet16Share4ShareSendShare
  • Bronze Age Shoes

    Climate change reveals unique artefacts in melting ice patches

    68 shares
    Share 27 Tweet 17
  • Danish astrophysics student discovers link between global warming and locally unstable weather

    67 shares
    Share 27 Tweet 17
  • Long-duration energy storage beats the challenge of week-long wind-power lulls

    72 shares
    Share 29 Tweet 18
  • The Cinderella Project: The right to see yourself in the mirror and like what you see

    66 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 17
  • Simple, inexpensive diagnostic technology to combat global threat of African Swine Fever

    65 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16
  • Tiny robotic crab is smallest-ever remote-controlled walking robot

    65 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16
ADVERTISEMENT

About us

We bring you the latest science news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Latest NEWS

Data contradict fears of COVID-19 vaccine effects on pregnancy and fertility

Charging a green future: Latest advancement in lithium-ion batteries could make them ubiquitous

Long-duration energy storage beats the challenge of week-long wind-power lulls

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 188 other subscribers

© 2022 Scienmag- Science Magazine: Latest Science News.

No Result
View All Result
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US

© 2022 Scienmag- Science Magazine: Latest Science News.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Posting....