Author's Latest Posts


Talking About Dark Silicon


Back in January, my article on dark silicon referenced work done by Michael Taylor and his research group at UC San Diego. I wasn’t able to arrange an interview with Dr. Taylor in time for that article, but we did have an extended conversation earlier this week. He pointed out that, while further decreases in threshold voltage are constrained by device leakage, the energy consumed by a circui... » read more

Darker Silicon


For the last several decades, integrated circuit manufacturers have focused their efforts on [getkc id="74" comment="Moore's Law"], increasing transistor density at constant cost. For much of that time, Dennard’s Law also held: As the dimensions of a device go down, so does power consumption. Smaller transistors ran faster, used less power, and cost less. As most readers already know, howe... » read more

Integrating DSA


As previous articles in this series have shown, directed self-assembly may be a promising alternative for manufacturers seeking to shrink feature sizes in the face of a stalled exposure tool roadmap. It is simpler than some other frequency-multiplication techniques, can be implemented with existing equipment, and does not appear to introduce insurmountable defect issues of its own. Which does n... » read more

DSA Moves Ahead


It can be difficult to make DSA structures other than uniform arrays. One solution is to print a grating over a large area, then use a “cut” mask to eliminate the unwanted features. The challenge, though, is that aligning the cut mask to an array of tightly spaced features, such as the fins for a FinFET transistor layer, can require extremely demanding overlay specifications. While reducing... » read more

Counting And Controlling DSA Defects


If directed self-assembly is to succeed in semiconductor manufacturing, [gettech id="31046" t_name="DSA"] processes must achieve defect rates in line with the stringent requirements of sub-20nm device nodes. So far, they haven’t. However, it’s not yet clear whether the high defect rates represent a real obstacle, or are simply part of the development of any new, immature process technology... » read more

The Key To DSA


The block co-polymer most commonly used in directed self-assembly research ([gettech id="31046" t_name="DSA"]), PS-b-PMMA (poly(styrene-block-methyl methacrylate) is an excellent choice because the two component monomers have similar surface energies. The exposed top surface of the film helps to stabilize the segregated domains, making it relatively easy to achieve the lamellar line-and-space p... » read more

What Will That DSA Template Do, Anyway?


As directed self assembly techniques make the transition from line and space test patterns to the more complex structures seen in real devices, modeling is emerging as a significant issue. How will the co-polymers behave in the presence of a particular template pattern? While several laboratory-scale modeling methods exist, most are too computationally expensive to be used for large area str... » read more

How To Program A Quantum Computer


Quantum computers have captured the attention of the computer science world because they are faster than classical computers for some problems. Spend any time reading about quantum computing technology, and you’ll see that statement over and over again. But what does it actually mean, given that classical computing is a mature, highly optimized technology and quantum computers are in their in... » read more

Watching Qubits At Work


As previously discussed, part of the appeal of qubits based on nitrogen-vacancy (N-V) defect centers in diamond is the ability to manipulate them with light. Light pulses can be used both to initialize the qubit array and to measure the results of quantum computations. As recent work at The University of Chicago shows, light can also be used to study the evolution of the quantum state in the... » read more

Reading About Quantum Computing


For the last several months, I’ve been working on a series of articles about quantum computing: how quantum computers are different from conventional computers, what materials systems might be appropriate for use in qubits, and, for the upcoming last article, how one might actually build and program a quantum computer. Some of the subtopics are familiar ground for me, and probably for most... » read more

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