IBM harnesses natures snowflake marvel for its gen next computer chips

Computer giant IBM has harnessed the natural pattern creating process that forms seashells, snowflakes and enamel on teeth to build the next generation of computer chips.

Washington, May 4 : Computer giant IBM has harnessed the natural pattern creating process that forms seashells, snowflakes and enamel on teeth to build the next generation of computer chips.

The process is used to create vacuum between the copper wires on a computer chip to allow electrical signals to flow faster, while consuming less electrical power.

A vacuum is believed to be the ultimate insulator for 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.

Today, chips are manufactured with copper wiring surrounded by an insulator, which involves using a mask to create circuit patterns by beaming light through the mask and later chemically removing the parts that are not needed.

The new technique to make airgaps by self-assembly skips the masking and light-etching process.

IBM scientists discovered the right mix of compounds, which they poured onto a silicon wafer with the wired chip patterns, and then baked it.

This patented process provides the right environment for the compounds to assemble in a directed manner, creating trillions of uniform, nano-scale holes across an entire 300-millimetre wafer. The holes are just 20 nanometers in diameter; up to five times smaller than would be possible using today's most advanced lithography technique.

Once the holes are formed, the carbon silicate glass is removed, creating a vacuum between the wires -- known as the airgap - which allows for electricity to flow 35 percent faster. The chips also consume 15 percent less energy compared to the most advanced chips manufactured using conventional techniques.

According to the company, the patented self-assembly process moves a nanotechnology manufacturing method that has 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 manufacturing techniques.

Scientists say, this new form of insulation, commonly referred to as "airgaps", is also a misnomer, as the gaps are actually a vacuum, absent of air.

IBM further said it has already integrated its state-of-the-art manufacturing line in East Fishkill, New York, with the self-assembly process, which is expected to be fully incorporated into 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, said Dan Edelstein, IBM Fellow and chief scientist of the self- assembly airgap project.

"This is the first time anyone has proven the ability to synthesize mass quantities of these self-assembled polymers and integrate them into an existing manufacturing process with great yield results. 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," he said.

ANI