Posted on 03/16/2017 8:36:24 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Computer chips continue to shrink ever smaller, but we still wring more processing power out of them.
One of the problems that comes with taking our technology to the nanoscale, however, is that we can no longer see what’s going on with them. Computer chips, with their arrays of transistors laid out like cities, have components that measure as little as 14 nanometers across, or about 5,000 times smaller than a red blood cell. Checking out these wonders of engineering without using expensive and destructive imaging techniques is a challenge, to say the least.
Viewing Technology With Technology
Researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland say that they may have found a way to look into microchips without ever touching them. Using an imaging technique similar to Computed Tomography (CT) scans, they bombarded a chip with X-rays and used a computer to assemble a 3-D reconstruction of its delicate architecture. The process works by taking a series of 2-D images based on how the X-rays bounce off of the structures, which is then combined into a realistic model.
In a paper published Wednesday in Nature, say that they can resolve details as small as 14.6 nanometers, or about the size of the smallest components in today’s commercial chips. They tested their technique first on a chip with a familiar layout, and then one that wasn’t — both times they successfully reconstructed a model of the chip’s inner workings with enough detail to see how it functioned, including the transistors and interconnects.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.discovermagazine.com ...
The photolithography used to manufacture integrated circuits is fascinating.
What I always found fascinating was...WHO THOUGHT THIS UP? I worked at Intel in mid 80s...with FAB people...was remarkable then...now it’s near mind blowing
I saw a PBS special on computers as a kid in the 70s. Undergrad in microprocessor design. Designed ST micros floatihg point unit for their Pentium clone in the 90s.
While the nigh end chips are amazing, it’s even amazing at the consumer level.
I had to buy a thumb drive memory to back up my home PC last week. I could not buy just one at Staples.
I had to buy a 4-pack of 16GB drives. For $25.
A 2-pack of 64GB drives was $39.
pretty cool, using x-ray crystallography interference inference techniques:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystallography
Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 2000 for inventing the intergrated circuit in 1958.
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