Moore's Law Sees Advance; Laser Drives Finer Chip Structures

According to a Research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a new way to shrink circuit structures in semiconductors has been invented. Currently, Moore's law is the standard that defines the growth in semiconductors. The law is named after Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore. According to the law the number of components in integrated circuits had doubled every year from the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958 until 1965. His prediction has proved to be uncannily accurate, and the law is still widely used in the semiconductor industry to guide long-term planning and to set targets for research and development.

#-Link-Snipped-#

Presently, chip manufacturing is based on photolithography techniques, producing only chip features that are larger than the wavelength of the light applied. Now, a new process can create complex structures chip structures which would be 1/8th the size of the wavelength of the light used. This process is described in detail in the paper published in Physical Review Letters titled as, "<em>Breaking the Far-Field Diffraction Limit in Optical Nanopatterning via Repeated Photochemical and Electrochemical Transitions in Photochromic Molecules</em>".

To make such a structure possible an effect called stimulated emission depletion imaging (STED) is used. In STED, scientists make use of the fluorescent characteristics of materials to emit light when targeted by a laser beam. The strength of light emitted can be controlled by the intensity of the laser beam and if the power falls enough, it causes a "dark patch" that is smaller than the wavelength of the laser light itself. These dark patches can be used as masks, which can be applied to a surface.

The MIT Researchers believe this could help in constructing semiconductors of a much finer build.

Source: #-Link-Snipped-# Image Credit: #-Link-Snipped-#