| Posted: February 21, 2007 |
Nanotechnology breaks the 10-nanometer chip design rule |
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(Nanowerk News) Korean researchers are going all-out to develop semiconductors adopting the much-touted 10-nanometer design rule.
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Flash memory cards using the ultra-slim technology will be able to store data equivalent to 64,000 years of a 40-page daily. But the 10-nanometer design rule is regarded as dream technology as it has been deemed as almost impossible to achieve.
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Leading the project are Prof. Choi Hee-cheul of Pohang University of Science and Technology and Kim Hyun-tak of the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI).
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Choi employed carbon nanotubes to successfully etch circuits that are thinner than 10 nanometers on the face of silicon wafers.
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"As far as we know, we broke a 10-nanometer barrier for the first time in history. We could make a breakthroughs after finding surface chemical reactions of carbon nanotubes," Choi said.
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"We hope this carbon nanotube-based technology will help crank out 10-nanometer memory chips. Toward that end, we are currently cooperating with U.S. venture start-ups," he said.
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The findings were featured in Nature Nanotechnology ("Carbon nanotube guided formation of silicon oxide nanotrenches") this week.
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Carbon nanotubes are cylindrical carbon molecules, which are on the order of merely a few nanometers wide. They are called dream materials because of their unique physical and chemical properties.
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Kim Hyun-tak at the state-run ETRI is working on a new substance dubbed a Mott insulator, which instantly changes from a conductive metal to an insulator.
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Kim hopes the insulator, which he and his men created in 2004 after years of experiments, will break the technical stagnation in making semiconductors with circuits slimmer than 10 nanometers.
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"I think a Mott insulator is the answer to make memory chips with super-slim circuits thanks to its characteristic of abruptly converting from a conductor to an insulator and vice versa," Kim said.
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"The 20th century was an age of semiconductors and this century will be one of Mott insulators. These materials will open up an enormous market," Kim said.
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