Page 179 - Bebop to The Boolean Boogie An Unconventional Guide to Electronics Fundamentals, Components, and Processes

160 Chapter Fourteen

to extreme ultraviolet (EUV) , which is just this side of soft X-rays in the electro-
magnetic spectrum. One potential alternative is true X-ray lithography, but
this requires an intense X-ray source and is considerably more expensive than
optical lithography. Another possibility is electron beam lithography, in which
fine electron beams are used to draw extremely high-resolution patterns directly
into the resist without a mask. Electron beam lithography is sometimes used
for custom and prototype devices, but it is much slower and more expensive
than optical lithography. Thus, for the present, it would appear that optical
lithography-in the form of extreme ultruviolet lithopuphy (EUVL) -will
continue to be the mainstay of mass-produced integrated circuits.

How Many Transistors?

The geometry table presented on the previous page reflects commercially
available processes (although widespread adoption typically takes some time),
but experimental processes in the laboratories are much further advanced.
For example, in December 2000, Intel announced that they had constructed an
incredibly small, unbelievably fast CMOS transistor only 0.03 pm (30 nano)
in size.
In the first half of 2002, Intel announced its McKinley microprocessor-
an integrated circuit based on a 0.13 pm (130 nano) process containing more
than 200 million transistors! And by the summer of 2002, Intel had announced
a test chip based on a 0.09 pm (90 nano) process that contained 330 million
transistors. Some observers are predicting that, using Intel’s 0.03 pm (30 nano)
process, by 2005, we could have 500 million transistors on a single chip running
at 10 GHzI4 with a supply voltage of less than one volt. And by 2010, we could
be looking at more than 1.8 billion transistors on a chip! At this level of pro-
cessing power, we will soon have the capabilities required to create Star Trek-
style products like a universal real-time translator.15J6

14 The unit of frequency is the Hertz (Hz). One gigahertz ( 1 GHz) means “one thousand million cycles
per second.”
15 Speaking of Star Trek, a company called Time Domain (www.timedomain.com) based in Hunts-
ville, Alabama, USA is using ultra wideband wireless technology to create an incredibly low power,
Tricorder-like handheld radar. This will allow police, firefighters, and rescue workers to “see
through walls” and, for example, detect earthquake victims trapped under piles of rubble.
16 There are predictions of geometries as low as 0.009 pm (9 nano) becoming available somewhere
between 2024 and 2028, at which point the author’s mind boggles!