Since 1986 - Covering the Fastest Computers
in the World and the People Who Run Them
Visit additional Tabor Communication Publications
December 15, 2006
NIST Explores New Circuitry Shrinking Technology
The bull's-eye solution to the semiconductor industry's hunt for more exact means to measure the relative positions of ever-tinier devices squeezed by the millions onto silicon chips might be new types of targets, and not expensive new equipment, according to modeling studies by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
If the counterintuitive findings hold up, the industry could continue to rely on the high-throughput optical equipment it now uses to align level after level of intricate circuitry patterns -- even as the size of individual devices drops well below 50 nanometers. This would spare chip makers of the challenge and extra cost of switching to more complex technology for so-called overlay measurements.
During chip production, instruments measure distances between selected lines on one target on one chip layer, and corresponding lines on another target on the layer immediately above. These measurements are used to determine the size of the offset between levels. A state-of-the-art microprocessor chip could have 28 levels, and the relative position of any two targets must be determined with a precision of only a nanometer or two. Because the dimensions of chip features are already dwarfed by the wavelength of visible light, many suspect that the industry's bag of technological tricks for extending conventional optical measurement methods will be exhausted within the next few rounds of miniaturization.
"Alternative tools -- such as atomic-force microscopes -- would provide the required resolution, but they are slower and are not likely to be as cost effective as the rapid, non-destructive optical techniques already used for overlay measurements," explains NIST physicist Richard Silver. Silver and colleagues explored improved designs for the targets, or benchmark reference patterns, used to check the precision and accuracy of overlay measurement equipment.
The target patterns investigated in the NIST modeling studies are the nanotechnology equivalent of slightly overlapping picket fences. Together, the two sets of densely arranged nanoscale lines and grooves create a hybrid target that strongly reflects light, creating an image measurable with a conventional optical microscope. The individual sets of lines are so dense that no individual optical image of the lines occurs, yet the combined superstructure results in the new unique optical pattern. The intensity patterns of the reflected light are unique to the combination, and the patterns are easily analyzed to determine the relative position of the lines that make up the pattern. In the modeling studies, feature sizes ranging from 10 nm to 50 nm were positioned as close as 100 nm apart, beyond the theorized limits of resolution.
As important, says Silver, the combined pattern greatly magnifies -- by better than 40 times -- the size of the overlay offset between layers. An article describing the pattern design and modeling results has been submitted to Optics Letters. Responding to immediate interest from the semiconductor industry, NIST is working with the partners to fabricate prototype targets with the new geometry.
-----
Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology
Discussion
There are 0 discussion items posted.
|
Join the Discussion |
Sponsored Links
Businesses that want to be on the cutting edge of their industries are increasingly turning to high-performance computing (HPC) solutions to handle complex compute processes and speed up their rate of innovation. Download this Executive Brief to see how businesses in energy, life sciences and entertainment put HPC solutions to work in their operations.
Webinar: Programming Heterogeneous X64+GPU Systems Using OpenACC
Join Michael Wolfe as he compares the advantages and costs of using both low-level models and the directive-based OpenACC model for programming accelerated heterogeneous systems. Registration is free.
Accelerate your science with Seneca
One of the first HPC providers installing a 4X NVIDIA Kepler K-20 cluster. Invites you to a free evaluation on Seneca’s NVIDIA K20 Kepler cluster, pre-loaded with AMBER, NAMD, LAMMPS
- White Paper: Building a Data-Intensive Cluster Supercomputer
- The Accelerated Genomics Cloud $25,000 Giveaway
- Memory Debugging Challenges in Parallel and Distributed Applications
- Visualize Historical Usage for Optimized Returns on HPC Investments
- ClusterStor™ 1500 – High Performance Efficiency
- Receive Higher Application Performance with end-to-end 56GbE
- Acer and Altair simplify cluster computing
- PGI 2013: OpenMP 1.5X faster than GCC, new GNU-compatible OpenACC C++ compiler, CUDA 5 and Tesla K20 support, and more.
RSS Feeds
Feeds by Topic
- Applications
- Developer Tools
- Interconnects
- Middleware
- Networks
- Processors
- Storage
- Systems
- Visualization
Feeds by Industry
Feeds by Content Type
- Features
- Blogs
- Short Takes
- Off the Wire
- Whitepapers
- Multimedia
- HPC Soundbite Podcasts
- HPCwire Job Bank
Subscribe to All Content
May 24, 2013
- IEEE TCSC Young Achievers in Scalable Computing
- Bright Computing Named Winner of 2013 Red Herring Top 100 North America Award
- Supermicro Announces New High-Density Server Solutions
May 23, 2013
- TACC to Upgrade to Internet2's Fastest Network Connection: 100 Gbps
- European Commission CoolEmAll Project Releases Prototypes
- Internet2 Establishes Direct Peering to Microsoft Cloud Services
- Model of Sun's Magnetic Field Created
- Enthought Awarded $1M Grant to Develop Python HPC Framework
- Supermicro Server Platforms to Use NVIDIA GRID Technology
- LG Electronics Becomes Lead Partner for ARM Cortex-A50 Family of Products
- ProximusDA Teams with STMicroelectronics to Develop Virtual Prototypes
- The Brain as a Model for Future Supercomputers
May 22, 2013
- OpenFabrics Alliance to Host Two RDMA Training Courses at University of New Hampshire
- Imperas Delivers Embedded Software Development Suite Based On ToolMorphing Technology
- University of Ulster to Host Scientific Computing Event
- ICT Investment Trends in Germany
- Skyera Adds NAS to skyHawk Enterprise Solid-State Storage Systems
- NetApp Announces Q4 Results
May 21, 2013
- Keyes and Sterling to Headline IEEE Cluster 2013 Conference
- Cyber Network Gears Up for Growth in the Cloud With IBM PureSystems
- New OMAP5432 Processor-Based Evaluation Module From Texas Instruments
- TwinStrata Introduces On-Demand Disaster Recovery as Service for VMware Users
- Weidlinger Launches PZFlexCloud Using CliQr Technologies
- "Places2Be" Project to Boost European Leadership Around FD-SOI
May 20, 2013
- Cray and VBRX to Host Event for Upstream Applications in Oil and Gas
- Dell to Deliver Public Cloud Through Partner Ecosystem
- Mentor and Tezzaron Optimize Calibre 3DSTACK for 2.5/3D-ICs
- Cloud Provider Selects Mellanox's InfiniBand as Their Cloud Interconnect
- Xyratex to Present at Barclay Telco and Media Event
May 17, 2013
May 16, 2013
- D-Wave Two Quantum Computer Selected for New AI Initiative
- Mines' Powerful New Supercomputer to Focus on Energy Research
- Kitware Develops Customizable Simulation Framework to Provide HPC for Mid-Sized Manufacturers
- Next HPC Installation Step Initiated at High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart
- HybridCluster2.0 Self-Healing, Ultra-High Availability Capabilities Unveiled
May 15, 2013
- Nominations for SC13 Cray, Fernbach and Kennedy Awards Due July 1
- Mellanox Technologies Ltd. Announces Definitive Agreement to Acquire Kotura, Inc.
- NYSERDA Awards $1.8 Million to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
- Bright Computing Named Finalist for the 2013 Red Herring Top 100 North America Award
- Flow Science Releases FLOW-3D/MP 5.0
- NEC Establishes NEC Ukraine to Strengthen Operations in Russia and the CIS
- Fujitsu Receives Supercomputer Order From Nagoya University
- Avere Systems Helps Framestore Create Extraordinary Visual Effects for Blockbuster Films
- Workshop on Modeling and Simulation of Exascale Systems Call for Papers
May 14, 2013
- Multimillion Pound Project to Develop Next Generation Computing Systems
- HPC Simulations Target Nanoscale Materials Under Strain
- New IBM Center in Beijing to Speed Linux Applications on Power Systems
- OpenCL Software Development Kit Fosters FPGA Exploitation
- S&P Capital IQ and Kuberre Systems Sign Data Facilitator Agreement
- Solarflare to Speak at Linux Foundation Enterprise End User Summit
May 13, 2013
- SDSC Hosts First Annual Industry Partners Research Review
- AMD Targets Server Performance with Open 3.0 Release
- BICS Selects Infinera DTN-X for 500G Pan-European Network
- Juniper Systems Celebrates its 20th Anniversary
Most Read Features
- Adapteva Shows Off $99 Supercomputer Boards
- "No Exascale for You!" An Interview with Berkeley Lab's Horst Simon
- Cray Answers Mid-Market's Call
- The Week in HPC Research
- Saddling Phi for TACC’s Stampede
- Supercomputing Vet Champions Quantum Cause
- Intel’s Big Data to HPC Interconnect
- The Week in HPC Research
- NERSC Managers Shed Light on 'Edison'
- Emerging Technologies at SC13: A Chat with the Chairs
Most Read Around the Web
- Speaking Many Languages into the MIC
- Floating Funding to Exascale Island
- New Tome Tells Modern History of Supercomputing
- Sequoia Hits Warp Speed
- HPC and the True Cost of Cloud
- Revolutionizing Tornado Prediction
- CUDA-Designed Robot: It's a Hit!
- Finnish Researchers Welcome New Cray Super
- Running Computational Fluid Dynamics in the Cloud
- Blue Waters: Security at Scale
Most Read This Just In
- IBM and Forrester Webinar to Discuss New Ways to Reduce Cost in HPC and Big Data
- Altera Opens FPGAs to Programmers with SDK, Off-the-Shelf Boards for OpenCL
- D-Wave Two Quantum Computer Selected for New AI Initiative
- New Simulation Speed Record Achieved with Sequoia Supercomputer
- AMD Targets Server Performance with Open 3.0 Release
- Brain Outperforms Supercomputers
- Vicor's ChiP Power Component Packaging to Make European Debut at PCIM Europe 2013
- Mines' Powerful New Supercomputer to Focus on Energy Research
- Commercial Quantum Computing Company D-Wave Systems Launches
- XSEDE13 Student Programming Contest Registration Opens April 30
Feature Articles
Exascale Advocates Stand on Nuclear Stockpiles
In quieter times, sounding the bell of funding big science with big systems tends to resonate further than when ears are already burning with sour economic and national security news. For exascale's future, however, the time could be ripe to instill some sense of urgency....
Read more...
NSF Forges Further Beyond FLOPs
In a recent solicitation, the NSF laid out needs for furthering its scientific and engineering infrastructure with new tools to go beyond top performance, Having already delivered systems like Stampede and Blue Waters, they're turning an eye to solving data-intensive challenges. We spoke with the agency's Irene Qualters and Barry Schneider about..
Read more...
CERN, Google Drive Future of Global Science Initiatives
Large-scale, worldwide scientific initiatives rely on some cloud-based system to both coordinate efforts and manage computational efforts at peak times that cannot be contained within the combined in-house HPC resources. Last week at Google I/O, Brookhaven National Lab’s Sergey Panitkin discussed the role of the Google Compute Engine in providing computational support to ATLAS, a detector of high-energy particles at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Read more...
Short Takes
NASA Builds 'Climate in a Box'
May 23, 2013 |
The study of climate change is one of those scientific problems where it is almost essential to model the entire Earth to attain accurate results and make worthwhile predictions. In an attempt to make climate science more accessible to smaller research facilities, NASA introduced what they call ‘Climate in a Box,’ a system they note acts as a desktop supercomputer.
Read more...
Building Supercomputers with Raspberries
May 22, 2013 |
At some point in the not-too-distant future, building powerful, miniature computing systems will be considered a hobby for high schoolers, just as robotics or even Lego-building are today. That could be made possible through recent advancements made with the Raspberry Pi computers.
Read more...
Running Computational Fluid Dynamics in the Cloud
May 16, 2013 |
When it comes to cloud, long distances mean unacceptably high latencies. Researchers from the University of Bonn in Germany examined those latency issues of doing CFD modeling in the cloud by utilizing a common CFD and its utilization in HPC instance types including both CPU and GPU cores of Amazon EC2.
Read more...
Computing the Physics of Bubbles
May 15, 2013 |
Supercomputers at the Department of Energy’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) have worked on important computational problems such as collapse of the atomic state, the optimization of chemical catalysts, and now modeling popping bubbles.
Read more...
Sponsored Whitepapers
Best Practices in Big Data Storage
05/10/2013 | Cleversafe, Cray, DDN, NetApp, & Panasas | From Wall Street to Hollywood, drug discovery to homeland security, companies and organizations of all sizes and stripes are coming face to face with the challenges – and opportunities – afforded by Big Data. Before anyone can utilize these extraordinary data repositories, however, they must first harness and manage their data stores, and do so utilizing technologies that underscore affordability, security, and scalability.
Progress in Parallel: the Bull Parallel Programming Center
04/15/2013 | Bull | “50% of HPC users say their largest jobs scale to 120 cores or less.” How about yours? Are your codes ready to take advantage of today’s and tomorrow’s ultra-parallel HPC systems? Download this White Paper by Analysts Intersect360 Research to see what Bull and Intel’s Center for Excellence in Parallel Programming can do for your codes.
Sponsored Multimedia
SGI DMF ZeroWatt Disk Solution
In this demonstration of SGI DMF ZeroWatt disk solution, Dr. Eng Lim Goh, SGI CTO, discusses a function of SGI DMF software to reduce costs and power consumption in an exascale (Big Data) storage datacenter.
Cray CS300-AC Cluster Supercomputer Air Cooling Technology Video
The Cray CS300-AC cluster supercomputer offers energy efficient, air-cooled design based on modular, industry-standard platforms featuring the latest processor and network technologies and a wide range of datacenter cooling requirements.
HPC Job Bank
Featured Events
- June 13, 2013
- June 14, 2013
Think Beyond Plastics Conference
Berkeley, CA
United States
- June 16, 2013
- June 20, 2013
ISC'13
Leipzig,
Germany
.gif)
- June 17, 2013
- June 18, 2013
Forecast 2013
San Francisco, CA
United States
- June 20, 2013
- June 21, 2013
CIO North America
Marina Del Rey, CA
United States
- June 24, 2013
- June 25, 2013
The Trading Show Chicago
Chicago, IL
United States
- June 25, 2013
- June 26, 2013
TERATEC 2013 Forum
Paris,
France
