Nanoimprint Litography
AMD and Intel will soon have to adopt a new way to manufacture CPUs and integrated circuits, because current lithography techniques are close to reaching their physical limits. This means that the insulating properties of silicon are being stressed to the maximum as insulating channels grow smaller and the important transistors are squeezed even closer together.
The latest high-K metal logic gates proved to be somewhat efficient, but these materials will soon be at their limits. Furthermore, carbon nanotubes may replace the copper interconnects, but that won't actually boost the insulating properties of silicon or improve the lithography process.
New ways to further improve lithography have been studied by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which came up with what they call nanoimprint lithography (NIL). Rather than etching patterns into a material like most methods, NIL is only an embossing process. A stencil die containing the necessary patterns is created and used to stamp the insulating material.
The embossed material must be malleable enough to accept the nanoscale imprint, but rigid enough to hold the shapes. That’s why NIL films are physically hardened after impression, using heat or ultraviolet radiation. The actual material is made of organosilicate glass (SOG).
For those of you who think that Moore’s law cannot really apply to future CPUs, it looks like the new SOG interconnect materials and extremely small transistors will further boost the exponential rise of processing power.
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This statement is woefully incorrect:
“New ways to further improve lithography have been studied by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which came up with what they call nanoimprint lithography (NIL).”
NIST did NOT come up with or develop NIL.