Hewlett-Packard has unveiled what it says is a major breakthrough
in molecular electronics research which will eventually lead to a
future generation of smaller, faster and cheaper computer
chips.
The company has been able to create the highest density
electronically addressable memory on record through its use of
molecular grids. Stan Williams, an HP fellow and director of
quantum science research at HP Labs, announced the nanotechnology
development in Stockholm, Sweden.
HP has created a laboratory demonstration circuit using a system of
manufacturing called nano-imprint lithography (a combination of
optical and electron beam lithography) that for the first time has
combined both memory and logic on a circuit using rewritable,
nonvolatile molecular-switch devices, HP said.
The circuit, a 64-bit memory system using molecular switches as
active devices, is less than one square micron in size, and has a
bit density more than 10 times greater than today's silicon memory
chips, HP said.
HP researchers began the process by making a master mould of eight
parallel lines, each only 40 nanometres wide, and then followed up
with a three-step molecular grids process that lays down molecular
strands, filled with platinum metal to form wires, in a layered
crisscross pattern. The mould allows an entire wafer of circuits to
be stamped out quickly and inexpensively from a master.
Four US patents have been awarded in connection with this work and
scientific papers are being submitted to reviewed technical
journals for publication, HP said.
HP has been working, often in conjunction with the University of
California at Los Angeles (UCLA), to develop the technology needed
to build complex molecular-scale chips. The chips are not only
smaller, but also faster than current technology while being more
energy-efficient and cheaper to produce.
HP and UCLA hold a three-part patent covering nanoscale logic
gates, molecular-switch memory chips and the ability to connect
nanochips to existing microchips. The chips developed by the two
organisations are built using a simple grid of nanowires a few
atoms wide, using rare earth metals which naturally align
themselves when they react chemically with a silicon substrate.