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August 15th, 2005
Nano Cluster Devices Develops and Patents Two New Semiconductor
Processes to Speed Production – Interconnect Layer Mask Steps May Not Be Needed for Nanometer Feature Lengths
Nano Cluster Devices, Inc. (NCD) has reported that it has developed
and patented two new processes for the production on integrated circuits. The first process is said to eliminate one of the
steps currently used in lithography, which is a necessary step for converting an image of an integrated circuit to a set of
masks for the volume production of semiconductors. According to the company, their new process can also generate patterns
of any shape. The other process is a new way to stencil. The company indicates that its stencil process eliminates clogging.
Most importantly however, according to the company, the new process
allows for the production of features 1000 times smaller than a human hair. A human hair, although not standarized, is
generally considered between 20 and 50 microns thick, implying that the new process could have a feature length in the order
of 0.02 micron or 20 nanometers. The company, as an example of the resolution of its technology, reported that the technology
could fit 100,000 maps of New Zealand on the head of a pin. For the most part, today’s integrated circuit technology
is limited to the production of square or rectangular devices that have a feature length, for commercial production, at 90
nanometers, with current technology transitioning to 65 nanometers.
Giving a good reason for a clog-free stencil process was Dr Jim
Partridge, the lead researcher, “It’s a bit like spray painting through a stencil, except that we are spraying
clusters and not paint. By controlling the conditions so that the clusters do not stick to the stencil, we have shown that
we can eliminate clogging and make very narrow wires.”
Dr. Brown also said that the developments were significant, “These are really significant developments.
These new technologies allow faster and easier patterning of nanodevices, and may provide significant economic and technical
advantages over existing technologies used by the semiconductor industry.”
NCD’s nanowire process, known as atomic cluster deposition,
is based on self-assembling clusters that can be used to form a variety of shapes or nanowires. Considered central to the
production of low-cost nanowires, the technology is the fact that the nanowires will self-assemble between electrical contracts
without any extensive process manipulation. It could be inferred that that the process developed, given any two electrical
contacts, or endpoints, results in the self-alignment of conductive atoms between the two contacts forming an electrical path.
With this as the postulate, it would follow that the step to develop the mask step for wires (interconnects) would not be
needed.
The self-assembly wires are believed to be central to enabling the production of low cost nanowires. NCD in June
of 2005 signed a letter of intent with SiliconPipe, Inc, (San Jose, CA). That letter was for the two companies to develop
conducting structures for use in high-speed chip packages and metallic based interconnects. At that time, Kevin Grundy, CEO
of SiliconPipe said "We have identified key application areas where we can use the methods developed by Nano Cluster Devices
to create circuit elements from self-assembled atomic clusters which will significantly improve high-speed metallic circuit
performance. ” As well, Dr. Simon Brown, Executive Director-Science and Technology for Nano Cluster Devices, Ltd. indicated
that their technology was central to the creation of nanowires, "The combination of SiliconPipe's electronic design expertise
and atomic cluster deposition techniques from Nano Cluster Devices will enable the creation of unique structures that are
impossible to create economically by other techniques."
Nano Cluster Devices, Inc. based down-under, in ChristChurch, New Zealand, is also affiliated with Nano Dynamics,
Inc., of Buffalo, New York. Dr. Alan Rae, VP of Market & Business Development at Nano Dynamics, Inc., also in June revealed
that the combination of Nano Cluster’s and SiliconPipe’s technology could result in a technology competitive with
optical technologies, "SiliconPipe is one of the most creative companies we know in the interconnect business and they have
already developed designs that have pushed the performance of high-speed interconnection to a point where their technology
is competitive with optical methods. We feel confident that a combination of Nano Cluster Device’s technology and SiliconPipe’s
will result in even higher performance and cost-effective packaging and based-based interconnect structures that will have
widespread applications."
Others that have worked on NCD’s nanowire technology include Jim Partridge, Rene Reichel and David Mackenzie.
Those three are in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Canterbury.
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