Semiconductor Manufacturing Research News
Stanford Creates Molecular Graphene
Carbon monoxide molecules (black) guide electrons (yellow-orange) into a honeycomb pattern called molecular graphene. (Source: Stanford)
Researchers from Stanford University and the U.S. Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have created “designer electrons” with tunable properties. The researchers described handcrafted, honeycomb-shaped structures in a recent article in the journal Nature.
Stanford said the scientists used a scanning tunneling microscope to place individual carbon monoxide molecules on a copper surface. The carbon monoxide repels the free-flowing electrons on the copper surface and forces them into a honeycomb pattern, where they behave like graphene electrons.
Hari Manoharan, associate professor of physics at Stanford, said, “We’re now able to tune the fundamental properties of electrons so they behave in ways rarely seen in ordinary materials.”
IBM Holey Optochip Hits Tb/s
IBM scientists have developed a prototype parallel optical transceiver chipset, dubbed “Holey Optochip,” which is capable of transferring one trillion bits – one terabit – of information per second; eight times faster than parallel optical components available today.
IBM Researcher Clint Schow said the IBM team has been pursuing higher levels of integration, power efficiency and performance for all the optical components through packaging and circuit innovations. “We aim to improve on the technology for commercialization in the next decade with the collaboration of manufacturing partners,” Schow said.
It would take about an hour to transfer the entire U.S. Library of Congress web archive through the transceiver.
IBM Holey Optochip. Original chip dimensions are 5.2 mm x 5 .8 mm. (Source: IBM)
Prototyping in 3D Speeds Up
Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology have significantly sped up a solid 3D prototyping technique using “two-photon lithography,” writing nanometer-scale structures, according to the SPIE-sponsored site Optics.org.
Replica of St. Stephen’s Cathedral. (Source: Vienna University of Technology)
The 3D printer hardens a liquid resin by a focused laser beam. A laser beam is guided through the resin by movable mirrors, creating a hardened line of solid polymer, just a few hundred nanometers wide.
Jürgen Stampfl from the Institute of Materials Science and Technology at the TU Vienna said the machine can print five meters in one second. “Until now, this technique used to be quite slow,” the professor said, noting that the typical printing speed used to be measured in millimeters per second.
The team improved the steering mechanism of the mirrors, which are continuously in motion during the printing process. The acceleration and deceleration periods have to be tuned precisely to achieve high-resolution results, he said.
- by David Lammers
Tags: IBM, lithography, optical, prototyping, Stanford, Vienna Institute of Technology