The Hindu Business Line : IBM copies pattern-creating process to build better chips

Bangalore May 6 How are snowflakes, seashells and teeth enamel formed? Ask IBM researchers, who have copied the natural pattern-creating process to build better chips.

Called self-assembling nanotechnology, this manufacturing method causes a vacuum to form between the copper wires on a computer chip, allowing electrical signals to flow faster, while consuming less electrical power. The self-assembly process enables the nano-scale patterning required to form the gaps; this patterning is considerably smaller than current lithographic techniques can achieve.

Self-assembly is a concept scientists have been studying at IBM and in labs around the world as a potential technique to create materials useful for building computer chips. The concept occurs in nature every day, it is how enamel is formed on our teeth, the process that creates seashells and is what transforms water into complex snowflakes. The major difference is, while the processes that occur in nature are all unique, IBM has been able to direct the self-assembly process to form trillions of holes, 20 nanometers in diameter, that are all similar.

The process will be fully incorporated in IBM's manufacturing lines by 2009 and chips made using this process will be used in IBM's server product lines.

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