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Home | Science Popularization | Science IN Foucus | Communication And Information Technology

Communication and Information Technology

World's First Super-Chip

Chemists at a university in the United Kingdom hope to "grow" the world's first three-dimensional (3D) computer chip using molecules that assemble themselves into molecular wires. If they succeed. It could herald a new computer revolution, boosting available computing power from silicon ships by a thousand-fold.

Although the computer came of age in the 1990s, the next decade could see progress stop completely. Only so much circuitry can be squezed on to a chip. And when the space runs out computer engineers will need to find a new solution. One way round the problem is to stack chips on top of each other to create a 3D chip.

But wiring a pile of chips together is a hurdle nobody has yet been able to overcome. Conventional wires are far too small to manipulate into the precise positions needed to join up the different components.

A team of researchers at Leeds University, Northern England, is now investigating a remarkable solutionh. Instead of prefabricating wires and placing them into position, they plan to "grow" the connections from one chip layer to another, much like artificial ivy.

The scientists have perfected a method for placing layers of electrically conductive molecules between the chips. The molecules naturally from thin wiry strands which will be used to bring the chips into electrical contact.

Molecules that assemble themselves sound far0fetched but such a process happens all the time in nature. Membranes in living cells are made from molecules that were previously found floating around in water but "knew" how to form together into layers. A similar thing happens as a child'' brain evolves into a neural network of inter-connecting wires.

Professor Bushby and colleague Professor Nevile Boden have created and patented disc-shaped liquid crystals that form themselves into stacks, similar to piles of dinner plates. Each plate has a central core of conducting carbon surrounded by an insulated rim, creating the perfect molecular "wire".

The team will initially assess the electrical properties and reliability of four different molecular wire technologies, together with how closely spaced the layers need to be. - LPS

The Times of India, Mumbai
May 18, 2000