IRISH RESEARCHERS are developing methods that may revolutionise how computer chips are manufactured in the future. Scientists at the Centre for Research Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (Crann) have devised ways to allow the electronic components to build themselves, writes BETH O'DONOGHUE
The research being carried out at Crann and the Tyndall National Institute is a joint effort between teams led by Dr Justin Holmes, senior lecturer in physical/materials chemistry and by Prof Michael Morris, professor of inorganic chemistry, both based at University College Cork.
The devices they are building are measured in nanometres, one billionth of a metre or a millionth of a millimetre.
The researchers are investigating how to make nanowires and then assemble them into patterns that can be used to make nanodevices, such as the tiny transistors found in computer chips.
Currently computer chips are manufactured using a “top- down” approach, using a process known as optical lithography. This involves etching patterns onto silicon chips, explains Prof Morris.
The problem with optical lithography is that as chip circuits become smaller and more complex, the cost of this process increases exponentially, he says. That is why the Irish researchers are investigating self-assembly as a way to manufacture cost-effective and more energy-efficient computer chips and other electronic devices.
Self-assembly involves using the chemical properties of molecules to encourage them to organise themselves into specific patterns. “Whenever you put very small objects in close contact, the forces between them cause them to arrange in a very ordered pattern,” explains Morris.
“Think of oil and water, except imagine that because the molecules can’t separate into big areas, they have to separate into very thin strips. What we have to do is produce a surface that drives polymers [chemicals] into a specific pattern.”
Despite the challenges posed by this type of nanoscale work, the researchers have succeeded in producing device structures measuring less than 10 nanometres, smaller than one thousandth of the width of a human hair.
The types of devices that the scientists are developing will become standard components of computer chips within the next six years, Morris estimates.
The project is mentored by Intel Ireland and recently received €1.8 million in funding from Science Foundation Ireland under its principal investigators programme.
Government funding of nanotechnology in recent years has allowed research to grow to a level where Ireland is now able to compete well with the rest of the world, according to Holmes.
Much of the research going on is still targeted at increasing fundamental knowledge of how nanotechnologies can be developed, but the researchers say that we are now seeing the introduction of technologies with industrial applications.
The biomedical industry is another area where the researchers believe these techniques and materials may be useful.
The researchers point to the field of diagnostics as an example.
Diagnostic blood tests that use patterns of specific antibodies to check blood samples for individual diseases are very useful. However, at present the number of diseases screened by each test is restricted by cost and size considerations, they say.
Nanotechnology methods could dramatically increase the number of diseases that each test could screen for and reduce the costs involved in making the test kits, say the scientists.
Morris estimates that Ireland is among the top five countries leading the way in terms of nanotechnology research. The potential applications of this research are near limitless, as are the potential benefits for the economy.
As Holmes says, “It’s the future.”