The crystal method: The hunt for more performance at 22nm is focusing attention on the silicon crystal itself

摘要

CHIPMAEERS ARE going back to the beginning of the integrated-circuit (IC) industry to find techniques that can boost performance in chips as transistors scale into the nanometer generation. New processing techniques and a better understanding of the quantum-mechanical behaviour of highly scaled devices are helping to re-open avenues that were closed off in the late 1960s, as researchers revealed at the International Electron Devices Meeting last December.