"Researchers Claim New Chip Technology Beats Moore's Law"
A team of engineering researchers at Princeton University have announced
a breakthrough chipmaking technology that promises to create more
powerful chips faster and for much less cost. Lead researcher Stephen
Chou says the method, called laser assisted direct input (LADI), beats
Moore's Law and breaks preconceptions about what efficiencies are
possible when making chips. However, Aberdeen Group semiconductor
analyst Russ Craig is skeptical of Chou's claims, noting that large
chipmaking companies such as Intel and Texas Instruments have not
commented on the technology and that it is probably not yet mature.
LADI uses a quartz die to press designs into silicon, which is zapped
with a laser for 20 billionths of a second so that it melts and molds around
the quartz. Chou says the result is chips with features as small as 10
nanometers wide, compared with the 90 nanometers currently possible
using the most advanced tools. The process also takes just a small
fraction of a second while traditional etching processes can take up to
20 minutes per chip.
(
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/18432.html)