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.

Innovations, X-rays, Printed circuit boards, Future Technologies, Photolithography, Circuit Printing, Electron Beam Accessed Memory

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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.

Semiconductor production equipment, product announcement, New Technique, Lepton Inc., Lepton EBIS-4 (Semiconductor production equipment)

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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.

Prepackaged software, Computer peripheral equipment, not elsewhere classified, Patent owners and lessors, Computer networks, Product development, Finance, Microprocessor, CPUs (Central processing units), Product Announcement, Intel Corp., Equipment and supplies, Microprocessors, Neural networks, United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, United States. Office of Naval Research, Government Funding, Government aid, Neural Network, Nestor Inc., Intel Ni1000 (Software development device)

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