Nanoelectronics

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Double gate from a FinFET transistor.

As nanoelectronics be integrated circuits referred to whose structure widths (smallest, via patterning method such as lithography realizable dimension in integrated circuits) below 100  nm are. In this area, physical effects must be taken into account, which were previously unknown or negligible. This leads to new forms of the components and completely new functional principles. However, this is only a rough classification and the term nanoelectronics is not subject to any strict definition or standard, since the transition between microelectronics and nanoelectronics is fluid or there is no differentiation, i.e. H. everything treated under the term microelectronics.

background

The structures in microelectronics became smaller and smaller at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, cf. Scaling (microelectronics) . In 2018, the same or modified manufacturing principles are largely used as in the 1980s, when the smallest structure widths in an integrated circuit were around 1 micrometer. This development will also continue to enable higher performance in even smaller components at even lower costs.

Because of this development, this area is often referred to as nanoelectronics , whereby this is not done through the use of new concepts based on known physical effects, but is based on "conventional" concepts.

Materials used

The basic material for microelectronics has been the semiconductor silicon for several decades . Responsible for this is, among other things, the mastery of the single crystal manufacturing process and above all the combination with its oxide ( silicon dioxide ), which is used as an insulator material and has very good adhesion properties on silicon. The previous development of the manufacturing processes for silicon monocrystals now enables the large-volume manufacture of high-quality crystals for substrates ( wafers ) with diameters of 300 mm.

Challenges and solutions

However, as leakage currents and quantum effects become more and more noticeable as the structure widths decrease , it will be necessary in the next few years to develop new concepts, such as the Y transistor and the FinFET transistor, and to integrate new materials into the manufacturing process. Only in this way will it be possible to continue to increase the performance of electronic components while reducing costs at the same time. The end of this development has been forecast several times in the last twenty years, but the existing problems, in particular the physical limits in the manufacturing process that are considered insurmountable, have been overcome time and again. Nevertheless, the “conventional” concepts will eventually be exhausted and it will be necessary to develop completely new concepts.

One example is extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL). For the next decade a further miniaturization down to 16 nm and below is expected. Conventional photolithography - currently (2012) UV light with a wavelength of 193 nm ( argon fluoride - excimer laser ) - then reaches its limits for physical reasons. In addition, even extensive changes to the previous system technology will no longer be sufficient to meet the technical requirements.

Objectives and fields of application

The objective of nanoelectronics is to reduce the size of electronic components in the nanometer range in order to ultimately increase computing capacity, storage capacity, the speed and the efficiency of computer chips. For this purpose v. a. the electronic properties of nano-semiconductor structures are researched and improved. It is also important to optimize the circuit structure and the architecture of computer chips in relation to the application. The laws of quantum physics should be made usable for electronics.

Furthermore, nanoelectronics should provide better techniques and devices for electronics production and optimize the logical linking, storage and processing of data through novel circuits and components. It is expected that, analogous to the development of microelectronics, technical progress will be positively influenced in almost all industries and that the result will be an even higher functionality of devices at lower costs.

Commercial fields of application for nanoelectronics are the consumer electronics , the automation technology , the medical technology , mobile communication devices, computers , navigation , sensors , cars and all aspects of technology-oriented research, in which the highest precision measuring instruments are used.

Physical limit & prediction

The smallest distance between silicon atoms in a single crystal is 0.235 nm (= 235 pm), which is only slightly larger than twice the covalent radius of 0.222 nm. This means that with a structure width of 5 nm, only about 20-25 silicon atoms (in [110]] of the diamond structure ) are connected to one another. Intel currently (end of 2019) plans to start mass production of 1.4 nm structure widths, which is expected to take place in 2029. In the next scaling step, the 1.0 nm technology node , only about 4–5 silicon atoms are connected to one another. With these conditions it becomes clear that “picoelectronics” (<100 pm, theoretically) can never be realized, since all other atoms of the periodic table also have a double covalent radius in the range 130–500 pm. This means that the structure widths for integrated circuits cannot be reduced at will. In order to further increase the performance of the microchips with a comparable TDP , new concepts must be invented which no longer depend on the material structure size.

Historical and current development (brief)

The International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) proposes the standards for technology nodes, e.g. B. also in 2017 the nodes 2 nm, 1.5 nm and 1 nm. The smallest structure widths of integrated circuits, especially of microprocessors in series production, were:

Memory chips

Memory chips have simpler circuit diagram architectures , which is why they are usually slightly ahead of the processors in terms of the size of the technology nodes:

  • 2002 at 90 nm, DRAM from Toshiba (world's first mass production of integrated circuits below 100 nm)
  • 2010 at 24 nm, NAND flash from Toshiba
  • 2013 at 10 nm, NAND flash from Samsung
  • 2017 at 7 nm, SRAM from TSMC

Processors

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Russer, Paolo Lugli, Marc-Denis Weitze: Nanoelectronics: Smaller - faster - better . Springer-Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-642-35791-6 , pp. 22 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. ^ John Kotz, Paul Treichel, John Townsend: Chemistry and Chemical Reactivity . Cengage Learning, 2008, ISBN 978-0-495-38712-1 , pp. A-95 ( limited preview in the Google book search - solution of a corresponding arithmetic problem.).
  3. ↑ Michael Eckstein: After the 10 nm debacle: Intel's ten-year roadmap to the 1.4 nm process node. In: elektronikpraxis.vogel.de. December 16, 2019, accessed June 17, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Jens D. Billerbeck: "Atoms cannot be made smaller". In: https://www.ingenieur.de/ . April 14, 2006, accessed June 17, 2020 .
  5. ^ Toshiba and Sony Make Major Advances in Semiconductor Process Technologies. In: https://www.toshiba.co.jp/ . Toshiba Corporation, December 3, 2002, accessed July 1, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Hannes Brecher: TSMC starts producing 5 nm chips. In: https://www.notebookcheck.com/ . June 20, 2020, accessed June 23, 2020 .