NanoBlog

William M. Holt from Intel gave the ISSCC 2016 keynote talk entitled 1.1 Moore’s Law: A Path Forward. Holt's talk was very interesting and focused on the effort to minimize power dissipation at Intel and the industry. He also described technologies under dewvelopment that may appear in future nodes. Most of these new devices reduce power dissipation but do not provide speed increases, however. The energy-delay product of a device is the key metric used to compare power efficiency. The paper for the talk 1.1 Moore's law: A path going forward is also available at the IEEE.


Image credit: EE Times Moore’s Law Goes Post-CMOS

The Semiconductor Engineering website posted an interview with Mark Bohr senior fellow and director of process architecture and integration at Intel, and Zane Ball, vice president in the Technology and Manufacturing Group at Intel and co-general manager of Intel Custom Foundry. In the article, we learned that

• 10 nm will be a full node for Intel
• 10 nm devices will be full production around 2H 2017
• Some design rules are scaling is better than 0.56x
• Uses 193nm immersion and self-aligned double patterning

The IEEE EDS has published a special issue on Advanced Technology for Ultra-Low Power Electronic Devices. The articles describe devices and technologies that may appear in future process nodes in the next few years, and are presently open access.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek has a good article describing how Intel makes chips. Intel spends $18 to $20 Billion a year on R&D and capital investment which is more than what Boeing invest per year to build aircraft ($6B). Intel builds chips with 10 Billion transistors using the 14 nm process node.

Light-duty vehicles contribute 61% of the greenhouse gasses emitted in the US. To meet the goal of an 80% in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, a systematic approach is needed according to the MRS Energy & Sustainability review on the Implications of sustainability for the United States light-duty transportation sector. This includes better fuel efficiency, extensive use of biofuels, use of electric vehicles powered using sustainable energy, and hydrogen powered vehicles where hydrogen is produced from low carbon sources.

The Particle & Particle Systems Characterization journal has produced a special issue on Advanced Particle Characterization Techniques that is available now and is open access.

The Berkeley Labs Advanced Light Source is offering scholarships for next year. Selected applicants receive a $18,000 annual stipend. The applications are due June 30, 2016.

Graphene Frontiers was featured in a How it's Made video that shows how graphene transistors used for biosensing are fabricated.

The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray light source has been upgraded with a new delta undulator which can produce light with any selected polarization to better characterize materials. An update version of the delta undulator is under development and will produce x-rays that are 10,000 times brighter than the current system.


Left: Electrons wiggle between two rows of magnets in a traditional undulator, creating X-rays. These X-rays, or light waves, are linearly polarized. Right: With four moving rows of magnets, the Delta undulator can create circularly polarized, or spiraling, light. (Source: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

ACS publications has produces a virtual issue on Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD). ALD can produce sub-nano thick layers of material structures built up at a layer at a time. The topics include:

• Growth and characterization of ALD films
• Growth of complex nanostructures
• Energy and catalysis applications