(Press-News.org) Washington, D.C. (December 14, 2010) -- The manufacturing of semiconductor wafers used in all types of electronics involves etching small features onto a wafer with lasers, a process that is ultimately limited by the wavelength of the light itself. The semiconductor industry is rapidly approaching this fundamental limit for increasing the speed of the microchip. The development of a new intense 13.5-nm (extreme ultraviolet or EUV) light source will resolve this issue by reducing the feature size by an order of magnitude or so, according to Purdue researchers in the Journal of Applied Physics.
One way to generate this wavelength of light is to bombard tin (Sn) and lithium (Li) targets with laser beams to create an intensely bright plasma; Sn and Li are good candidates because their plasmas emit efficiently in the 13.5 nm region, says Purdue graduate student Ryan Coons. He and his colleagues used spectroscopy and a Faraday cup to analyze the emission features and debris produced in laser-produced tin and lithium plasmas, and others in his group modeled their physical processes.
In a detailed comparison of the atomic and ionic debris, as well as the emission features of Sn and Li plasmas, the group's results show that Sn plasmas produce twice as much emission as that of Li. However, the kinetic energy of Sn ions is considerably higher, though with a lower flux. More work is needed to perfect the development of this technology.
INFORMATION:
The article, "Analysis of atomic and ion debris features of laser-produced Sn and Li plasmas" by Ryan W. Coons, Sivanandan S. Harilal, David D. Campos, and Ahmed Hassanein appears in Journal of Applied Physics. See: http://link.aip.org/link/japiau/v108/i6/p063306/s1
Journalists may request a free PDF of this article by contacting jbardi@aip.org
NOTE: An image is available for journalists. Please contact jbardi@aip.org
CAPTION: False-color images of the tin and lithium plasma plumes in EUV emission through a 7 to 15 nm filter, obtained under identical conditions.
ABOUT JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS
Journal of Applied Physics is the American Institute of Physics' (AIP) archival journal for significant new results in applied physics; content is published online daily, collected into two online and printed issues per month (24 issues per year). The journal publishes articles that emphasize understanding of the physics underlying modern technology, but distinguished from technology on the one side and pure physics on the other. See: http://jap.aip.org/
ABOUT AIP
The American Institute of Physics is a federation of 10 physical science societies representing more than 135,000 scientists, engineers, and educators and is one of the world's largest publishers of scientific information in the physical sciences. Offering partnership solutions for scientific societies and for similar organizations in science and engineering, AIP is a leader in the field of electronic publishing of scholarly journals. AIP publishes 12 journals (some of which are the most highly cited in their respective fields), two magazines, including its flagship publication Physics Today; and the AIP Conference Proceedings series. Its online publishing platform Scitation hosts nearly two million articles from more than 185 scholarly journals and other publications of 28 learned society publishers.
Making wafers faster by making features smaller
2010-12-15
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Single quantum dot nanowire photodetectors
2010-12-15
Washington, D.C. (December 14, 2010) -- Moving a step closer toward quantum computing, a research team in the Netherlands recently fabricated a photodetector based on a single nanowire, in which the active element is a single quantum dot with a volume of a mere 7,000 cubic nanometers. The device is described in the American Institute of Physics' journal Applied Physics Letters.
Photodetectors based on single quantum dots are expected to find uses in optoelectrical interfaces in future quantum computers, where single photons will carry information over long distances and ...
Robot arm improves performance of brain-controlled device
2010-12-15
The performance of a brain-machine interface designed to help paralyzed subjects move objects with their thoughts is improved with the addition of a robotic arm providing sensory feedback, a new study from the University of Chicago finds.
Devices that translate brain activity into the movement of a computer cursor or an external robotic arm have already proven successful in humans. But in these early systems, vision was the only tool a subject could use to help control the motion.
Adding a robot arm that provided kinesthetic information about movement and position ...
Attempting to predict epileptic seizure
2010-12-15
Washington, D.C. (December 14, 2010) -- While the causes of epileptic seizures continue to confound brain researchers, scientists have been exploring how changes in the coordinated activity of brain networks, as monitored through electrodes, might help predict impending seizures. A report in the American Institute of Physics' journal CHAOS offers new insight into this possibility.
Two properties are commonly used to measure fluctuations in the activity of a brain network; one, known as L, relates to the overall connectedness between the activities of brain regions (or ...
Qatar-led international team finds its first alien world
2010-12-15
In an exciting example of international collaboration, a Qatar astronomer teamed with scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and other institutions to discover a new alien world. This "hot Jupiter," now named Qatar-1b, adds to the growing list of alien planets orbiting distant stars. Its discovery demonstrates the power of science to cross political boundaries and increase ties between nations.
"The discovery of Qatar-1b is a great achievement - one that further demonstrates Qatar's commitment to becoming a leader in innovative science and ...
Unique orangutan reintroduction project under imminent threat
2010-12-15
JAMBI, Indonesia – A Sumatran rainforest named a global priority for tigers and home to a unique orangutan rescue project is targeted for clearcutting by one of the world's largest paper suppliers.
An investigation found that since 2004, companies affiliated with Asia Pulp & Paper/Sinar Mas Group have sought out selective logging concessions with dense natural forests in the Bukit Tigapuluh landscape. The companies obtained government licenses to switch the forest status to industrial timber plantation concessions, sometimes under legally questionable circumstances. ...
UA engineering tests underground border security system
2010-12-15
TUCSON, Ariz. (Dec. 14, 2010) -- A unique underground surveillance system tested by UA researchers could be used to watch the entire U.S.-Mexico border continuously.
The border-monitoring system, known as Helios, consists of laser pulses transmitted through fiber-optic cables buried in the ground that respond to movements on the surface above. A detector at one or both ends of the cable analyzes these responses. Helios is sensitive enough to detect a dog and can discriminate between people, horses and trucks. The system can be set to avoid being triggered by small animals, ...
Vaccine boosts your immune system
2010-12-15
YOUR BODY'S OWN VACCINE: Researchers at BRIC, the University of Copenhagen, have discovered for the first time a protein normally found in the body that can act to prevent chronic tissue inflammation. When administered in the form of a therapeutic vaccine it is able to effectively prevent and treat a number of different inflammatory disease models for multiple sclerosis (MS), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), skin hypersensitivity and allergic asthma (AA).
The article, entitled, "Endogenous collagen peptide activation of CD1d-restricted NKT cells ameliorates multiple tissue-specific ...
The AVE pollutes 29 percent less than traditional trains
2010-12-15
High-speed trains consume 29% less energy than conventional trains per passenger transported, and reduce CO2 emissions by the same proportion. These are the conclusions of a study by the Spanish Railways Foundation published in the journal Transportation Research Record.
"A high speed train operating in normal conditions consumes less energy and produces less CO2 emissions per passenger transported (on average 29% less) than a conventional train travelling between the same two points at a lower speed", Alberto García, author of the study and a researcher at the Spanish ...
New asthma research breaks the mold
2010-12-15
Scientists investigating the allergic reactions that asthmatics suffer towards a common mould have discovered that many people with asthma actually had the mould growing in their own lungs.
The research led by University of Leicester scientists at Glenfield Hospital has been published in the December 2010 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
The team based in the Institute for Lung Health at the University of Leicester and Glenfield Hospital examined the impact on asthmatics of a common environmental mould, Aspergillus fumigates, ...
Scientists identify how virus triggers cervical and mouth cancer
2010-12-15
University of Manchester scientists have discovered for the first time an important new way in which the human papilloma virus (HPV) triggers cancer in what could lead to new treatments for cervical and mouth cancer.
HPV infection is known to increase the risk of developing cancers of the cervix and mouth with the two high-risk forms of the virus accounting for approximately 70% of all cervical cancer cases.
Vaccinations against these high-risk forms of HPV should reduce the incidence of cervical cancer but the frequency of mouth cancer actually increased in the UK ...