Shulou(Shulou.com)05/31 Report--

This is the biggest problem in the electronics industry today. How does the chip industry continue Moore's law? The latter is the observation of Gordon Moore, co-founder and former chief executive of Intel, that the number of transistors in dense integrated circuits doubles every two years. The first observation was in the mid-1960s, when the number of transistors was initially required to double every year. The rules are important because the higher the transistor density of the chip (suitable for the number of transistors per square millimeter), the more powerful and energy-efficient the chip will be.

This is an example. The Apple A13 bionic chipset was manufactured by TSMC's 7nm process node, which used the factory in 2019. The A13 Bionic has a transistor density of nearly 90 million per square millimeter, providing power to the iPhone 11 series, including 8.5 billion transistors. In 2020, TSMC used its 5-nanometer process node to make the A14 Bionic. The chip encapsulates 134 million transistors into one square millimeter and provides 11.8 billion transistors. Next year, TSMC is expected to start producing 3nm integrated circuits, and both TSMC and Samsung have drawn up a roadmap to reduce the production line to 2nm.

Apple's A14 Bionic chipset is the first 5nm chip to be used in commercial smartphones, and the tested materials may bring longer battery life to more powerful phones.

But what happens at 2 nanometers and above? Many analysts say that even though Moore's Law has been previously published and new technology paves the way for its continuation, Moore's Law is dead. In a report published by Natural Materials (through Phys.org), the researchers said they were working on a new material that could keep the chip cool even if the chip size became smaller. Managing the heat generated by placing more circuits on smaller chips is one of the problems facing chip designers and manufacturers. This is a big problem because not only is the number of circuits increasing, but the size of the chip is getting smaller and the transistor is getting closer and closer. This makes heat dissipation more difficult to prevent circuit damage.

The insulation used in the chip draws the current out of the circuit. This kind of insulation is called "low k dielectric". Physical org called them "silent heroes who make all electronics possible by doing what is needed to prevent signal corrosion and interference". The researchers studying the new materials are Patrick E. Hopkins, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Virginia, and will Dieter, a professor in the department of chemistry at Northwestern University. "scientists have been looking for a low-k dielectric material that can deal with inherent heat transfer and space problems on a smaller scale," Hopkins said. although we have come a long way, unless there is a new breakthrough, there will be no new breakthrough in the combined discipline. for this project, we

Dichtel explains what the team is doing to make smaller chips possible. " We are obtaining a polymer sheet with only one atomic thickness (we call it two-dimensional) and controlling its performance by layering in a particular architecture. We strive to improve the production methods of high-quality 2D polymer films so that this cooperation can be completed. The team is applying this new material category to meet the requirements of miniaturization of transistors on dense chips, which has great potential for applications. This material not only has low conductivity or "low K", but also has high heat transfer capacity. "

The feature combination mentioned by Dichtel has been cited in the international semiconductor roadmap, which is necessary to create the next generation of integrated circuits. "in this project, we are focusing on the thermal performance of this new material category, which is amazing, but what is even more exciting is that we are just scratching the surface," said Austin Evans, a doctoral student at Dichtel Lab. "there is amazing technical potential to develop new materials with unique combinations of properties." Helping to extend the life of Moore's Law seems to be one of them.

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