Advancements in Atomically Precise Manufacturing

Nanotechnology is at the heart of a great number of breakthroughs that will power the future economy. Materials that will be manufactured using atomically precise technologies will offer performance and prices far superior to conventional materials.

For example, the state of the art in semiconductor technology is photolithographic manufacturing. Photolithography uses light to remove material on a chip wafer, layer by layer. It has been done that way for decades even as the chip density has increased and chip size has decreased.

One of the leading manufactures of capital equipment for the semiconductor industry is playing a big part in photolithographic manufacturing. The technology improvements have enabled them to pile an increasing number of components on semiconductor "real estate." Right now, advanced photolithography qualifies as nanotechnology, however there are theoretical size limits being approached.

This is because light is used to "cut" the electrical pathways and components on the chip. This gets harder to do if the features that are requested are smaller than the wavelength of light being used to do the job. As an example, you don't shave with a chain saw.

New technologies are being developed that don't rely on etching or otherwise removing unwanted materials. Increasingly, they will rely on the self-assembling capacities of carefully engineered molecules.

For example, MIT researchers have recently developed a molecular manufacturing technique that facilitates the adoption of electron beams in chip manufacturing. Beams of electrons can be far more narrowly focused than beams of light. This allows smaller chip features and more powerful, compact electronics.

This same progression is evident in scientific instruments. In the late 1500s, optical microscopes began the quest to see smaller and smaller objects. Eventually, the limits of optical resolution were reached; for the same reasons, we are hitting the limits of light-based lithography.

During the Great Depression, electrical engineers developed methods for using electrons to view very small objects. The scanning electron microscope became one of the most transformational scientific instruments of the 20th century. The insights it provided revolutionized many fields from biology and medicine to materials sciences.

However, in photolithographic chip fabrication, light has one advantage over electrons. An entire layer can be etched by simply exposing the layer to a project image with the desired pattern. This isn't much different than old-school darkroom photography. You expose photosensitive paper to an image pattern projected through the negative. After developing the picture, you have an entire image. Electron beams require that patterns be drawn one line at a time; like the Etch A Sketch we had as kids. Electron beam lithography allows higher resolution but it is much slower.

This is where the MIT researchers brought molecular self-assembly into the picture. They created a technique using electron beams to etch nano-sized posts on semiconductor wafers. They then exposed them to polymers that attach to the posts and spontaneously self-arrange into predictable but not particularly useful patterns.

To get useful patterns, some of the polymers were fabricated using silicon. After self-assembly, an electrically charged gas burned away the non-silicon polymers. Only the silicon polymers, in the desired pattern, remained.

Since the polymers can repel and attract each other in different ways, and since the individual links in a polymer chain can be tailored to fit an application, the patterns can be manipulated. The shapes that are formed can also be controlled by varying the spacing and number of posts created by the electron beam.

To date, the researchers have been able to create seven different shapes. As this breakthrough technology becomes more workable, it will increase the speed at which chips can be manufactured. Products using these chips will experience a short product development lifecycle and will come to market faster.

I trust this post has provide some background and evidence that powerful efforts are underway with breakthrough technology for precise manufacturing. These activities will soon provide alternative wealth creating opportunities and our economy will become significantly stronger.

In closing, I favor a quote from Steve Forbes. Forbes says that pursuing additional financial education and the resulting increase in our financial literacy (including the investment potential of breakthrough technology) will open our eyes to alternative wealth creating strategies and this will be the key to resolving our global financial crisis.

To gain the necessary financial education, it is best to obtain association with, access to, and membership in a wealth creation community. As a result, you will learn and have the knowledge to use alternative wealth creating strategies such as Bank on Yourself, debt reduction, and asset protection. You will be exposed to wealth acceleration investments in areas (discussed in this and previous blog posts) such as atomically precise manufacturing, nuclear power generation, commercial space ventures, Carrier Ethernet technologies, nanotech lithography, robotics, nano-based next-generation battery technology, precious metals, water rights, oil, natural gas, potash mines, food commodities, and gold mines. You will have the knowledge to consider investments in assets that are inherently useful like oil rigs, hydropower, or methanol plants; things that are hard to build, difficult to replace, and costly to substitute; definitely not financial stocks, definitely not retail stocks, definitely not commercial property.

Another benefit of membership in a wealth creation community is exposure to entrepreneurial leadership and business opportunities. Many of these leaders suggest that if you don't focus on being a digital entrepreneur, being self-employed, or being a small business owner, it will be a very tough road in the months and years ahead; actually it will be an uphill battle. As a result, the innovative wealth creation communities provide education and training on B2B, and B2C, eCommerce enabling a new breed of professionals that are creating six figure second incomes.

It is wise to monitor breakthrough technology as there are truly exciting developments afoot in the field of nanotechnology for precise manufacturing and related business activities. I will continue to monitor developments and provide updates in future articles and at my blog.

Until the next time, I invite you to learn more about me and my various activities by checking me out at the links below.

Have a Great Day and More Later,

Mike Farrell

Meet me here: http://www.facebook.com/mifarrell
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When not traveling for business or pleasure, Mike operates his own internet marketing company and consulting firm from the mountains of Colorado.

Precision Manufacturing Of Silicon Wafers in a Nutshell

Silicon wafers are probably the single most important component in the modern electronics industry. Millions of wafers are used in electronics devices and produced daily on a mass scale. The process of developing these essential little items took years to develop, but now it has become a fairly routine process to manufacture them efficiently and economically.

Silicon is a simple element that can be naturally found in abundant quantities. In fact, this brittle substance is one of the most common elements known on the planet. It is present in many rocks and is used in a wide variety of applications that can range from cement to glass and synthetic rubber products.

As a semiconductor for electronic usage, it has the ability to control the passage of electricity in an extremely precise manner. By adding assorted other materials to it in its processed crystalline form, its conductivity properties can be altered as needed to produce a highly controlled way to channel minute amounts of electrical impulses in electronic gear.

Making a wafer is actually a complex process in its entirety, but the basics are quite easy to understand. To put the procedure into simple terms, the silicon is used to grow a crystal substance which will contain desired amounts of other materials which give it the desired properties for its specific application.

These crystal composites are then ground into any number of specific shapes which are uniformly sliced into wafers and polished. The wafers can be created in many different shapes and sizes, depending on what type of semiconductor devices they are required to be inserted into. The ultimate factors that determine their function are decided by their shapes, thicknesses and added ingredients.

In addition to the raw material of silicon, arsenic, boron and other elements are introduced. All of the components are essentially melted together inside specialized furnaces that form ingots ready for processing. Once the individual ingots are cooled and thoroughly inspected for defects, they are ready for grinding and slicing.

Each ingot will be ground into a relatively rough shape that is larger than the finished product. A diamond saw is most commonly used to slice the piece into a flat and uniform part. At this point, they will need to be lapped, or rough finished, to remove marks from the sawing process along with any other defects. This is basically a method of polishing and smoothing the material.

After this step, mild acids are used to further remove any surface imperfections that might be present. Special water solutions are applied to rinse and remove these acids. In most cases, addition grinding will be needed to round off corners to remove areas that could be easily broken during installation into the device for which they may be designed.

After being shaped, smoothed and cornered, each piece is finely polished and cleaned with chemicals such as ammonium hydroxide. Finally, they are all carefully inspected and are approved or rejected. While the exact details of the manufacturing process that silicon wafer suppliers use are quite complicated, the overall method is fairly straightforward.

Jessica entered the Semiconductor Manufacturing field in 1998. Jessica has held positions at Integrated Micromachines and Xponent Photonics prior to founding Rogue Valley Microdevices, and establishing it as one of the leading silicon wafer suppliers and MEMS Foundry Services.

The New Age of Semiconductor Devices and Microelectronics Manufacturing

Modern engineering has stepped up many levels since the introduction of electronics. Large and bulky machinery has been reduced to mere hand held devices. This has become a wide spread and innovative change in most areas of manufacturing. What is microelectronics manufacturing and how is it used in today's society?

Every time you use a cell phone or a hand held GPS device, you are using an end product made from the smarts of microelectronics. The small components used to manufacture devices like cell phones are made using a special and detailed process using semiconductor devices and thin films. These tiny parts are connected together on a circuit board that allows for consumer usage. Each board is specific to the end product.

Capacitors, transistors, resistors, and diodes are examples of commonly used microelectronic parts. These are vital to the inner workings of the electronic devices used every day all over the world. Without these tiny components, you would not be able to turn on and off your cell phone or video game. Without a resistor being present in your television, you could not control the volume.

Schooling for working in the field of microelectronics has become a big part of university studies. For those students interested in working Semiconductor Devices and the process of physical vapor deposition, knowledge about the intricate structure of the electronic device is required. Many silicon wafer suppliers and semiconductor companies have upgraded to using microelectronic technology and employees need the special knowledge required to implement processes correctly and efficiently.

Consider the importance of electronics in everyday life. Think about the doctors that rely on robotic hands for performing delicate operations and for monitoring patients during those same procedures. Many electronic devices are used for life saving procedures in the medical field. Without innovative microelectronic research, these types of devices would have never been founded. Many peoples lives depend on the biomedical device next to them in the hospital setting.

The manufacturing production of many products used every day depends on computers for swift and efficient movement. Assembly lines in plants using robotics depend wholly on computers. In each and every one of these computers are the workings of microelectronics on a motherboard. Cars, medical equipment, furniture, and even some clothing are examples of products made using newer and more technologically advanced methods that require microelectronics.

Financial and government data used to be kept on computer main frames that would fill a large warehouse. Thanks to microelectronics, that same data can be placed on tiny semiconductor devices that have much larger hard drive spaces. This data is superbly important to things like Social Security and tax refunds for citizens, so keeping it stored in a better way is a plus.

Microelectronics manufacturing using thin films is making headway and is also making life easier for everyone. Jobs that used to cost hundreds of thousands in shear man hours have been streamlined into very efficient and cost effective production methods. The technology and capabilities are exciting and seem to be limitless.

Jessica entered the Semiconductor Manufacturing field in 1998. Jessica has held positions at Integrated Micromachines and Xponent Photonics prior to founding Rogue Valley Microdevices, specializing in semiconductor devices and establishing it as one of the leading silicon wafer suppliers.