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IBM researchers report, in the journal Science, that they have developed a technique that allows them to manipulate individual silicon atoms. IBM scientists already had demonstrated, in 1990, that they could manipulate individual xenon atoms, and they could do this so precisely that they were able to form a pattern in the shape of the company's logo. Circuitry in today's electronic devices is measured in microns, which is on a scale that is 1,000 times coarser than devices that might be built at the atomic scale, where devices and their components are measured in nanometers, or billionths of a meter. IBM's latest research was accomplished using a scanning tunneling microscope, which can be used to manipulate atoms with strong chemical bonds. Atoms of 'noble' elements, such as xenon, interact weakly with other atoms.

Integrated circuit manufacturers wage an endless struggle to reduce the size of circuits so that more can fit on each chip. Today's factories use light waves to draw circuits that are about 0.8 microns wide, with the thinnest circuits being about 0.4 microns wide, but these specifications are not adequate. Manufacturers want to make 0.25-micron circuits by the late 1990s, but light waves are simply too 'fat' to do this. X-ray lithography, involving wave lengths as narrow as 0.0008 microns, is an adequate technology, but it is expensive. An X-ray light source can cost as much as $20 million. Some companies, including Intel Corp, are looking at research into particle beam technologies, which would bypass X-rays, promising the possibility to etch 0.1 micron circuit patterns directly into silicon, using computer-guided beams of electrons or protons.

Motorola Inc and TRW Inc have announced the development of the CPUAX SuperChip, a 'supercomputer' chip that incorporates important technological breakthroughs. The device contains four million transistors and can process 200 million floating point operations a second. TRW claims that the chip contains everything necessary to be an entire computer. The chip, they say, can perform tasks that currently require a computer the size of a room. The CPUAX, which was designed for the US Navy, has the most dense architecture yet created, but it will have little market impact immediately. More important now, are the development techniques that were necessary for this chip, which can be applied to current operations. With the help of a second chip called a satellite chip, the SuperChip will be able to monitor its workings and switch to alternate circuits should an internal failure occur.

IBM Moves To "Cubing" -- 3D Semiconductor Technology 06/15/92 COSTA MESA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 JUN 15 (NB) -- IBM has signed a joint development agreement with Irvine Sensors to commercialize […]