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HP announcment: molecular electronics

from the moving-toward-molecular-memory dept.
WillWare writes "William R. Cousert posted a pointer to a story on MSNBC [alternate URL] indicating that HP will make an announcment tomorrow in Europe about further advances in the work they were doing with UCLA in January":

Molecular grids are the central concept in HP's nanotechnology plans. In HP's vision, layers of molecular strands, laid down in a crisscross fashion like city streets, will form a mesh of tiny, intelligent circuits… In 2001, the two institutions were awarded a patent that addressed one of the key hurdles in using grids: how to connect the molecular wires, which can measure six atoms wide, to the tiny wires found in computer chips, which can be 70 times thicker.

There is a follow-up story on Yahoo: HP Labs Creates Densest Memory Chip

There is also an extensive article on the New York Times website: "Hewlett Finds a Process to Make Chips Even Smaller", by John Markoff, 10 September 2002.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 11th, 2002 at 2:20 AM and is filed under Nanoscale Bulk Technologies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “HP announcment: molecular electronics”

  1. WillWare Says:
    September 11th, 2002 at 11:47 AM

    press release, pictures

    HP has a press release on its website, with high-res pictures in TIF format here.

    The first picture is an SEM photo, showing wires forming an X-Y grid with a 1-bit memory element at each intersection. The pictures shows a sequence of six frames, each representing a higher magnification. I assume the buzz means they've tested the thing, and the memory bits are individually writeable and readable.

    The second picture shows the researchers sitting around with the SEM and a computer.

    The 8×8 grid shown in the picture is about 1 square micron. The wires are about 40 nm wide, and spaced about every 125 nm. I believe this is about a factor of three better than is currently possible with current photolithography. The limiting factor for the spacing in this case seems to be a printing process similar to one that made some news in June.

    Here is an interesting excerpt from the press release:

    Speaking at a symposium celebrating the 175th anniversary of the Royal Institute of Technology of Sweden, R. Stanley Williams, HP Fellow and director of Quantum Science Research at HP Labs, said his group had:

    • created the highest density electronically addressable memory reported to date. The laboratory demonstration circuit, a 64-bit memory using molecular switches as active devices, fits inside a square micron — an area so tiny that more than 1,000 of these circuits could fit on the end of a single strand of a human hair. The bit density of the device is more than 10 times greater than today's silicon memory chips;
    • combined, for the first time, both memory and logic using rewritable, non-volatile molecular-switch devices; and
    • fabricated the circuits using an advanced system of manufacturing called nano-imprint lithography — essentially a printing method that allows an entire wafer of circuits to be stamped out quickly and inexpensively from a master.

    I am a little curious about the statement in the CNET article that "the molecular wires … can measure six atoms wide". The wires in the picture are much larger. Perhaps "six atoms wide" is the theoretical limit on spatial resolution for this sort of printing process.

  2. Mr_Farlops Says:
    September 12th, 2002 at 2:33 AM

    Re:press release, pictures

    "The second picture shows the researchers sitting around with the SEM and a computer."

    And unlike Lucent's young, freshly scrubbed team, these folks actually look like scientists!

    Sorry, just couldn't avoid the humorous comment!

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