简介: |
Dr. Qinghuang Lin is a Research Staff Member at IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. He received his B.E. and M.S. degrees from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin prior to joining IBM. His current research interests center on novel nanomaterials for manufacturing of electronic devices and systems as well as solar cells.
Abstract
Semiconductor chips are the brain of the Information Age and the engine of the knowledge-based economy. Sophisticated modern chips power everything from spacecraft, super computers, communication networks, to iPhones and iPads. Historically, the semiconductor chip industry grew at a compound annual growth rate of more than 15%, and it has grown to become a gigantic business of more than US$300 billions per year in less than five decades.
The success of the semiconductor industry has been driven, in a large part, by the remarkable ability of optical lithography – the process to “print” intricate circuitries on silicon wafers -- to continuously shrink device features to improve performance and to reduce manufacturing costs. As the optical lithography and conventional device structures approach their limits, material innovations have become increasingly important to maintaining the historical performance improvement trends. The introduction of new materials into semiconductor manufacturing, unfortunately, has led to an explosion in process complexity, dramatic increases in materials and energy consumptions and manufacturing costs as each new advanced chip-making factory requires $4 billion or more of investment. The increased complexity and costs threaten to slow down the historical pace of progress in the semiconductor industry. |
