ITinfo: Quantum Mechanics Increases Chip Density

Tiny Chips

A quantum leap for chip manufacturing

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Quantum Mechanics Increases Chip Density

by Dave Murphy
ISSN 1535-3613

Chips with densely-packed circuits run raster because the electrons need less time to traverse the circuit's pathway. Most microchips are made by optical lithography. Chip manufacturers carve circuits onto chips using narrowly-focused beams of light. There's a practical limit to how small the pathways can be when they're etched using current technology: about half the wavelength of the light beam.

Scientists at the University of Maryland at Baltimore have taken a quantum leap with a theory that will use photon's in an entangled state to do the cutting. In plain terms, quantum mechanics explains how a pair of photons can react to one another. Affect one and the other photon reacts.

Physicist, Dr. Yanhua Shih, has experimentally verified a way to focus light, actually focus the entangled photons, to a degree far less than half the light's wavelength. This technique, tweaking one photon to get another to do the work, could lead to smaller, faster chips without needed to change the basic lithography process.

Dave's Opinion

I think this is pretty cool stuff. If you've been reading ITinfo for a while, you know that I'm intrigued with the IT applications of quantum physics. Most reports of quantum mechanics in IT address cryptography and the creation of secure data transmission systems. Theoretically using entangled photons as a miniature cutting tool is new to me.

Call for Comments

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References

Dr. Shih
Message Center

Quantum Device Unveiled
Beam Me Some Processor Time

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updated October 4, 2001
http://dgl.com/itinfo/2001/it011004a.html