Európában nőnek a nanocsövek

Az EU kutatóműhelyeiben kidolgozott nanovezeték-technológiák fontos szerepet játszhatnak a jövőbeni infokommunikációs eszközök gyártásában.

Nanowires are a promising new technology that could meet rapidly rising performance requirements for integrated circuit design over the next ten years. They are tiny wires just tens of nanometres in diameter and micrometers in length. They could mean smaller, faster and lower power electronics, and lead to entirely novel architectures such as 3D microchips – a vertical stack of circuitry that can massively increase the size of circuits for the same footprint. Nanowires are so narrow they are often called ‘one-dimensional’ structures because the width of the wire constrains the sideways movement of electrons as they pass through the wire. Also, the cylindrical geometry allows the most efficient electrostatic gating technology. Unsurprisingly at this scale, nanowires demonstrate many characteristics that offer the potential for novel circuits and architectures, and physicists are very excited. The Japanese pioneered the field with the USA taking up the work, and with a few European teams entering soon after. But the Europeans are on their way. Recent work at the NODE project led to world-class technology and 40 patents. “Silicon technology becomes very challenging when you get down to 10-15nm,” explains Lars Samuelson, director of the Nanometer Structure Consortium at Lund University and coordinator of the NODE project. “One of the problems of the top-down approach is that it introduces harsh environments and you end up with devices that may be dominated by defects.” NODE’s nanowires are ‘grown’ from the bottom up, like crystals, into vertical structures. “We call it ‘guided self-assembly’, and it is a ‘bottom-up’ process that can result in fewer defects,” Samuelson says. Vertical nanowires can consist of different materials, by simply altering the depositing material, so the wire takes on layers with different characteristics. “There are many potential opportunities for developing new technologies,” he says. “This vertical arrangement may be the route to 3D circuit design as well as to realise monolithic on-chip optoelectronics.” NODE focused on combining silicon with indium arsenide and silicon with silicon germanium, two very promising materials. “Indium arsenide is inherently very fast and, as such, it was of particular interest to our work,” remarks Samuelson. The project looked at every link in the nanowire production chain, from growth, processing on an industrial scale, to characterisation and integration.

IT3 komment: Az Európai Uniós által támogatott NODE kutatási projekt eredményeként úgy tűnik, hogy Európa is be tud kapcsolódni a szilicium alapú nanocsövekre épülő nanotechnológiás csipgyártásba. A technológia ugyan még nem érett arra, hogy segítségével működő processzorokat állítsanak elő. A kutatási eredmények arra utalnak, hogy ehhez még 5-10 év szükséges.

Forrás: www.physorg.com