Etching the chips of the future; one of 3 approaches: using electron beams
Article Abstract:
Photolithography is the method most commonly used in the semiconductor industry to perform circuit printing on high-volume computer chips. Future technologies may include x-rays or electron beam accessed memory techniques to etch extremely thin circuitry onto smaller and smaller chips. Some in the industry believe that electron beam lithography, probably involving multi-beam systems, is the most fruitful direction for research. This position is supported by Hitachi Ltd's announcement of a 64M-bit prototype DRAM chip developed with electron beams. IBM believes electron beam lithography is inherently too slow and proposes the US government and industry fund a project to develop storage ring particle accelerators to manufacture chips capable of holding 256 millions bits of information using x-rays. Others in the industry believe present optical technology is sufficient for several generations of chips.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: News, opinion and commentary
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1990
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Jersey company to introduce fast chip-making machine
Article Abstract:
Lepton Inc, a Bell Labs spinoff company based in Murray Hill, N.J., will introduce its EBIS-4 direct-write electron beam lithography semiconductor production tool. The electron beam method of semiconductor preparation has been around for many years, but Lepton's product is the first to make it work fast enough to be competitive with other methods. The method involves steering a powerful beam of electrons to write circuit patterns directly onto silicon wafers. According to Lepton, the machine can create features as small as an eighth of a micron. The machine will cost in the neighborhood of $6 million, but it has the advantage of being able to work with existing semiconductor production equipment.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: News, opinion and commentary
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1990
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From Intel, the thinking machine's chip: a new technology based on the human brain
Article Abstract:
Intel Corp is shipping samples of its Ni1000 neural network processor, which is the largest and fastest such device yet made. The Ni1000 was jointly developed with Nestor Inc, and the development effort received $1.6 million of funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Office of Naval Research. Intel itself invested $1.1 million and Nestor put up $400,000. The new device is built as an array of 1,024 silicon 'neurons,' each of which has memory for data storage and retrieval. Because the Ni10000 relies on memory technology, it required far fewer resources to develop than are needed for a conventional processor such as Intel's Pentium.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: News, opinion and commentary
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1993
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