HP, UCLA push ahead in nanochip chase
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP), in conjunction with the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), has developed technology which will enable it to build complex molecular-scale chips simply and inexpensively, HP said Wednesday.
These chips are about 100 times smaller than today's standard silicon chips, with their dimensions measured in nanometers rather than micrometers (microns). These nanoscale chips promise related benefits in higher speeds, lower cost and lower power consumption when they eventually appear in commercial computing devices towards the end of this decade.
The technology is based on a three-part patent issued to HP and UCLA covering nanoscale logic gates, molecular-switch memory chips and the ability to connect nanochips to existing microchips, HP said in a statement.
The researchers build chips using a simple grid of nanowires of a few atoms wide, built from rare earth metals which naturally align themselves when they react chemically with a silicon substrate. Rare earth metals in chemistry form a group that includes yttrium, scandium and thorium. Large electrically-switchable molecules called rotaxanes are trapped between the lines of the nanowire grid to form the basis for logic gates.
The exact nature of the logic circuit can be determined by electronically setting the molecular switches in a particular configuration.
The HP and UCLA collaboration has also patented a memory chip based on molecular switches. In a third advance, the researchers connect the molecular-scale devices to current lithographically-formed wires, via a chemical process, according to the statement.
The nanotechnology market has been heating up over the past year, with several announcements of miniscule devices from major vendors. As the drive to create molecular-scale devices continues, advanced chemistry is replacing advanced physics as the principal science behind developments.
In November last year, a team of scientists at Lucent Technologies Inc.'s Bell Labs created a transistor contained within a single large molecule known as a thiol.
In August 2001, IBM Corp. announced a computer circuit made from a carbon nanotubes, a tube-shaped molecule of carbon atoms.
Nanotechnology is also expected to be exploited in optical switches, quantum computing devices and biotechnology.
ITworld.com
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