IBM innovates on computer chip manufacturing

IBM announced the first-ever application of a breakthrough self-assembling nanotechnology to conventional chip manufacturing, borrowing a process from nature to build the next generation computer chips.

Dan Edelstein,IBM Fellow and Chief Scientist

The natural pattern-creating process that forms seashells, snowflakes, and enamel on teeth has been harnessed by IBM to form trillions of holes to create insulating vacuums around the miles of nano-scale wires packed next to each other inside each computer chip.

“In chips running in IBM labs using the technique, the researchers have proven that the electrical signals on the chips can flow 35 percent faster or consume 35 percent less energy compared to the most advanced chips using conventional techniques,” said Daniel Dias, Director, IBM India Research Laboratory.

The IBM patented self-assembly process moves, a na-notechnology manufacturing method, that had shown promise in laboratories into a commercial manufacturing environment for the first time, providing the equivalent of two generations of Moore’s Law wiring performance improvements in a single step, using conventional manu-facturing techniques.

This new form of insulation, commonly referred to as ‘airgaps’ by scientists, is a misnomer, as the gaps are actually a vacuum, absent of air. The technique deployed by IBM causes a vacuum to form between the copper wires on a computer chip, allowing electrical signals to flow faster, while consuming less electrical power.

A vacuum is believed to be the ultimate insulator for what is known as wiring capacitance, which occurs when two conductors, in this case adjacent wires on a chip, sap or siphon electrical energy from one another, generating undesirable heat and slowing the speed at which data can move through a chip. The self-assembly process is expected to be fully incorporated in IBM’s manufacturing lines and used in chips in 2009. The chips will be used in IBM’s server product lines and thereafter
for chips IBM builds for other companies.

“By moving self assembly from the lab to the fab, we are able to make chips that are smaller, faster and consume less power than existing materials and design architectures allow.” said Dan Edelstein, IBM Fellow and Chief Scientist of the self-assembly airgap project.