Tinier transistors for tomorrow's chips

In semiconductor manufacturing, fabricating smaller transistors and placing them closer together on a silicon integrated-circuit chip translates into faster computers.

 Today's advanced microprocessor chip has wires and surface features no thinner than 0.35 micrometer. To reach the high levels of performance that many researchers and others would like to see in future computers, manufacturers must develop technologies that significantly decrease that thickness.

 The announcement last week of the formation of a private industry consortium called the Extreme Ultraviolet Limited Liability Company marked the launch of a major project aimed at developing the technology needed to etch circuit lines less than 0.10 mm wide.

 In this effort, Intel Corp., Advanced Micro Devices, and Motorola have joined forces with the Lawrence Livermore (Calif.) National Laboratory, the Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, and the Lawrence Berkeley (Calif.) National Laboratory to work under the umbrella of the newly created Virtual National Laboratory (VNL). The industry group will provide $250 million to VNL over the next 3 years to develop extreme ultraviolet lithography for commercial manufacturing of computer chips.

 A crucial part of semiconductor manufacturing involves an essentially photographic process of printing patterns to guide which parts of a silicon surface must be etched away. The industry group is betting that the use of electromagnetic radiation at a wavelength of 13 nanometers, pioneered at Sandia, can be successfully put into an industrial setting.

 Other groups have been working on approaches involving X-ray or electron-beam lithography. At this stage, however, Intel believes that extreme ultraviolet technology offers the greatest promise for commercial application, says spokesman Adam Grossberg.