3D configurations could usher in new generation of microchips
1 min read
Researchers at MIT claim to have found a new way of making complex three dimensional structures using self assembling polymer materials that form tiny wires and junctions. The team says the work has the potential to usher in a new generation of microchips and devices made up of submicroscopic features.
Similar self assembling structures have been produced before, but according to the researchers, this is the first time the structures have been extended into three dimensions with independent configurations on different layers.
Caroline Ross, the Toyota professor of materials science and engineering at MIT, said there has been much interest in finding ways to produce chip features narrower than the wavelength of light. It has been an active area of research, but "what we did in this paper was push it into the third dimension," she commented.
After creating an array of tiny posts on a substrate of silicon, the team coated the surface with block copolymers, which naturally assemble into long cylindrical structures. By controlling the initial spacing of the posts, the researchers were able to set the spacing, angles, bends and junctions of the cylinders that form on the surface. Each of the two layers of cylinders could be controlled using these posts, making it possible to create complex 3d configurations.
So far the researchers have only produced two layer configurations, but they believe that three layers would be feasible.
The team had previously demonstrated this method to make wires much finer than those created by existing photolithography techniques. "In principle, this is scalable to quite small dimensions," Ross added, possibly far smaller than the 15nm width of the cylinders produced so far. This could help lead the way to next generation devices that fit even more wires and transistors into a given area of silicon chip material.
The researchers say the technologies involved are compatible with existing manufacturing equipment, although the research is still far from actual chip production. Ross and her team hope to use this methodology to produce a simple electronic device within the next year.
