Innovative Fix Boosts Chip’s Power, Cuts Size

An inexpensive change in microprocessor coatings can increase performance from 10 to 100 times and reduces chip size by 40%, scientists have announced.

Researchers at the University of Texas and DuPont Photomask Inc. said the innovative process uses quartz and a new coat of paint.

“I didn’t believe it could be done at first,” said Grant Willson, whose breakthrough was announced this week at the annual Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers meeting in Santa Clara. “It really works better than my wildest imaginings.”

Currently, state-of-the-art lithography techniques help place a chip’s electrical connections only about 0.25 microns apart, a measurement about 200 times smaller than a human hair.

In chips, smaller is faster, and most experts had believed that existing techniques could be refined down to a 0.13 micron level. Only new technologies could trace still narrower patterns, they thought.

The UT-DuPont team focused its efforts on a different part of the lithography process: the combination of chemicals known as photoresist--a paint-like substance--and the quartz plate that contains the semiconductor design.

Essentially, the research team came up with a new mix of chemicals for the photoresist and a more precise way of fashioning the quartz plate. It may allow chip makers to put off for a decade or more the need to shift to entirely new types of lithography.