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With the advent of nanotechnology, these transistors are becoming even faster and more powerful, and inaccordance with the law of accelerating returns, the industry has been producing smaller transistors at lower costs with each andevery passing year. As these semiconductors become smaller and smaller, they are quickly and surely pushing towards the limits ofthe nano-realm.

These innovations, however, do not come without their fair share of challenges. Physical issues that arenot problematic at the micron scale arise at the nano-scale due to the emergence of quantum effects, and in much the same way thatoptical microscopy cannot be utilized at the nano-scale, the semiconductor industry is fast approaching a similar diffractionlimit. Optical lithography, for instance, a process that uses theproperties of light to etch transistors onto wafers of silicon, will soon reach its limit.

At its most basic level, nanotechnology involves pushing individual atoms together one by one. Sinceapproximately 1.7 billion transistors are required for a single chip, this is obviously not a realistic method for mass production.Unless an alternative method for production or a solution to this problem is found, the development and manufacturing of transistorsare expected to hit a proverbial brick wall by the year 2015. This is the reason that research in nanotechnology is so important forthe world and future of semiconductors.

How are semiconductors manufactured?

Today’s semiconductors are usually composed of silicon, and they are manufactured in a procedure that combinesthe familiar with the bizarre; some steps that are involved in the process are as everyday as developing a roll of photographic filmwhile others seem as if they would be better suited to take place on a spaceship.

These semiconductors appear to the naked eye as being small and flat, but they are actually three-dimensional“sandwiches” that are ten to twenty layers thick. It can take more than two dozen steps and up to two full months to produce a singleone of these silicon sandwiches. Some of the basic and more essential steps involved in the manufacturing process of siliconchips are briefly detailed below.

First, silicon crystals are melted in a vat and purified to 99.9999% purity. The molten silicon is drawn intolong, heavy, cylindrical ingots, which are then cut into thin slices called wafersabout the thickness of a business card.

One side of each wafer must be polished absolutely smooth. This process is called chemical-mechanicalpolishing, and it involves bathing the wafers in special abrasive chemicals. After chemical-mechanical polishing, imperfectionscannot be detected on the wafers even with the aid of a laboratory microscope.

After a wafer is polished, layers of material must be stacked on top of the silicon wafer base. Insulating layersare laid down in alternation with conducting layers in a process called deposition. This is often achieved by spraying the chemicalsdirectly onto the surface of the wafer through chemical vapor deposition. Following deposition, the wafer is coated with anotherlayer of chemicals called a photoresist that is sensitive to light.

Questions & Answers

A golfer on a fairway is 70 m away from the green, which sits below the level of the fairway by 20 m. If the golfer hits the ball at an angle of 40° with an initial speed of 20 m/s, how close to the green does she come?
Aislinn Reply
cm
tijani
what is titration
John Reply
what is physics
Siyaka Reply
A mouse of mass 200 g falls 100 m down a vertical mine shaft and lands at the bottom with a speed of 8.0 m/s. During its fall, how much work is done on the mouse by air resistance
Jude Reply
Can you compute that for me. Ty
Jude
what is the dimension formula of energy?
David Reply
what is viscosity?
David
what is inorganic
emma Reply
what is chemistry
Youesf Reply
what is inorganic
emma
Chemistry is a branch of science that deals with the study of matter,it composition,it structure and the changes it undergoes
Adjei
please, I'm a physics student and I need help in physics
Adjanou
chemistry could also be understood like the sexual attraction/repulsion of the male and female elements. the reaction varies depending on the energy differences of each given gender. + masculine -female.
Pedro
A ball is thrown straight up.it passes a 2.0m high window 7.50 m off the ground on it path up and takes 1.30 s to go past the window.what was the ball initial velocity
Krampah Reply
2. A sled plus passenger with total mass 50 kg is pulled 20 m across the snow (0.20) at constant velocity by a force directed 25° above the horizontal. Calculate (a) the work of the applied force, (b) the work of friction, and (c) the total work.
Sahid Reply
you have been hired as an espert witness in a court case involving an automobile accident. the accident involved car A of mass 1500kg which crashed into stationary car B of mass 1100kg. the driver of car A applied his brakes 15 m before he skidded and crashed into car B. after the collision, car A s
Samuel Reply
can someone explain to me, an ignorant high school student, why the trend of the graph doesn't follow the fact that the higher frequency a sound wave is, the more power it is, hence, making me think the phons output would follow this general trend?
Joseph Reply
Nevermind i just realied that the graph is the phons output for a person with normal hearing and not just the phons output of the sound waves power, I should read the entire thing next time
Joseph
Follow up question, does anyone know where I can find a graph that accuretly depicts the actual relative "power" output of sound over its frequency instead of just humans hearing
Joseph
"Generation of electrical energy from sound energy | IEEE Conference Publication | IEEE Xplore" ***ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7150687?reload=true
Ryan
what's motion
Maurice Reply
what are the types of wave
Maurice
answer
Magreth
progressive wave
Magreth
hello friend how are you
Muhammad Reply
fine, how about you?
Mohammed
hi
Mujahid
A string is 3.00 m long with a mass of 5.00 g. The string is held taut with a tension of 500.00 N applied to the string. A pulse is sent down the string. How long does it take the pulse to travel the 3.00 m of the string?
yasuo Reply
Who can show me the full solution in this problem?
Reofrir Reply
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Source:  OpenStax, Pdf generation problem modules. OpenStax CNX. Sep 23, 2008 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10514/1.4
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