Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, say they
have found a way to make sure
Moore's Law carries on when it comes to developing denser, more
powerful computer chips.
There are fears in the chip industry that Moore's Law -
the doubling of transistor numbers on a chip every 18 months -
may eventually be curtailed, but the researchers think they have
found a solution.
Engineers at Berkeley are reporting a new way of creating
computer chips that could revitalise optical lithography, a
patterning technique that dominates modern integrated circuits
manufacturing.
They have combined metal lenses that focus light through the
excitation of electrons - or plasmons - on the lens' surface with a
"flying head", which resembles the stylus on a old-fashioned LP
turntable and is similar to those used in hard disc drives.
With this technique, the researchers were able to create line
patterns only 80 nanometers wide at speeds up to 12 metres per
second, with the potential for higher resolution detail in the near
future.
There were fears that chip production at the sub-135 nanometer
level would be curtailed when it came to the number of transistors
loaded onto the surface.
"Utilising this plasmonic nanolithography, we will be able to
make current microprocessors more than 10 times smaller, but far
more powerful," said Xiang Zhang, professor of mechanical
engineering at Berkeley and head of the research team behind this
development.
"This technology could also lead to ultra-high density discs
that can hold 10 to 100 times more data than discs today," he
said.
Zhang worked jointly on the project with David Bogy, professor
of mechanical engineering at Berkeley.