INDUSTRY NEWS

Tiny bubbles

"Tiny bubbles, in the IC...." No, Don Ho hasn't found a new career as a process engineer. But tiny—in fact, infinitesimal—glass bubbles may find themselves as key components in chips with 30 times more transistors than there are in today's devices.

The air-filled bubbles are in an insulating material called xerogel. Developed by NanoPure in New Mexico, xerogel was used in a device made recently in a project funded by TI and NIST through its Advanced Technology Program. The institute says the project demonstrates a successful method of minimizing the crosstalk and power loss that will become more common as IC linewidths continue to shrink. Resembling cloudy window glass, xerogel consists of 70% to 80% air bubbles measuring 20 nm or smaller. Because xerogel is mostly air, which has natural insulating properties, the material acts as a perfect insulator for devices with submicron geometries. In addition, xerogel's low dielectric constant isolates adjacent wires, limiting signal disruptions and power loss.

Looking to the future, TI recently combined xerogel in an IC containing copper interconnects instead of aluminum. The resulting technology could enable the industry to make microprocessors with speeds up to 10 times faster than current models.

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