Very cool read from CAS where they lay down the future of semiconductor manufacturing with some ground work already being made. I still consider that we are going to exhaust advance packaging techniques before going this route.
This Xiangshan Science Conference focused on cutting-edge scientific issues in atomic manufacturing. The 1-nanometer technology node is considered the physical limit of silicon-based chip manufacturing and processing technology. The distance between adjacent atoms in a crystal is about a few angstroms (0.1 nanometers). If chips can be manufactured by directly manipulating atoms, it will subvert the manufacturing rules based on existing photolithography technology.
They are considering 2D materials as the future of semiconductor devices.
So, what kind of materials are suitable for atomic manufacturing of chips and other components?
Zhang Yuanbo, professor of the Department of Physics at Fudan University, introduced that the international community believes that two-dimensional semiconductors are an important material system for nodes of 1 nanometer and below, and are also the only materials recognized to be able to continue Moore's Law.
Two-dimensional materials have a unique single-molecule layer crystal structure. For example, graphene is a two-dimensional material composed of carbon atoms. "Two-dimensional materials and devices have the characteristics of high carrier mobility and rich electrical properties. They can still work normally under the condition of 1 nanometer and are expected to break through the limits of traditional semiconductor devices." Zhang Yuanbo introduced that in recent years, the academic community has made great progress in the defect regulation, stress regulation, charge regulation, corner stacking regulation and other aspects of two-dimensional materials. For example, the growth of two-dimensional materials at the wafer level has been achieved, and most silicon-based circuit functions can be realized based on two-dimensional semiconductor integration processes.
They consider real time metrology necessary in the fabrication of these devices.
Real-time online detection during the manufacture of two-dimensional materials and strict control of their growth are also critical. Xie Liming, a researcher at the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, introduced that in order to reveal the growth mechanism of related two-dimensional materials, the team has developed a high-temperature in-situ optical imaging technology, which can implant a high-temperature microscopic imaging lens in the chemical vapor deposition system to achieve real-time imaging of two-dimensional material growth with a spatial resolution of 1 micron at 950°C, thereby revealing the growth dynamics and growth mechanism of two-dimensional materials and obtaining key parameters such as their growth rate and diffusion rate.
If you want to do your work well, you must first sharpen your tools. Based on high-resolution online observations and offline scanning transmission electron microscope imaging data, the team developed a liquid phase edge epitaxial growth method and equipment to achieve full monolayer growth of molybdenum disulfide.
Based on the growth of high-quality two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide wafers, Zhang Guangyu's team at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, successfully epitaxially grew a 2-inch monolayer of molybdenum disulfide single crystal film on an industrially compatible C-face sapphire substrate through a new strategy of interface buffer layer control. Compared with silicon, molybdenum disulfide has stronger electronic control capabilities and is considered to be an ideal material for manufacturing the next generation of chips.
Also a new generation of lithography machines and techniques is being in research that even today could improve current manufacturing abilities like mask manufacturing and better overlay.
Experts attending the meeting said that processing technologies represented by directed self-assembly induced patterning process technology, cold cathode parallel electron beam direct writing etching equipment technology, large-scale scanning probe equipment technology, and X-ray lithography equipment technology are also constantly improving and developing, providing support for industrial-level large-scale atomic manufacturing.
