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To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (25537)	8/31/2001 8:50:43 AM
From: ScotMcI	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25960

Motorola Designs Tools for Ultra-Small Chips LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT - news) says it has developed technology that would allow for mainstream production of computer chips with microscopic circuitry more than 50-percent more densely packed than currently possible. Motorola said Wednesday it had developed photomasks, or the material that is applied onto silicon wafers to make chips, that will allow features on the integrated circuits smaller than 100 nanometers in width to be created. By comparison, a human hair is about 10,000 nanometers wide and the current next-generation industry standard is for chip etchings of 157 nanometers in width. The chips would be created through a process known as photolithography, in which light is used to burn away excess silicon and create circuitry on the wafer. The Motorola photomasks were designed for use with extreme ultra-violet (EUV) photolithography, which uses a smaller wavelength of light than previous processes for more precision and finer detail, the company said. Joe Mogab, a director at Motorola's DigitalDNA Laboratories, said in an interview that lines as narrow as 13 nanometers could eventually be etched on to chips with the EUV process. Motorola's EUV photomasks were made with a patterning process compatible with industry standards, making it commercially viable after the next-generation of development, the company said. The Motorola photomask is also more efficient as a production technology since it has a map of the circuit laid out on it and because it is fully reflective, as opposed to existing masks that transmit light, Mogab said. The announcement was made at the International SEMATECH Next Generational Lithography Workshop in Pasadena, California. The development of the new masks is important because they are necessary to be able to manufacture chips using EUV. The smaller wavelength light means more delicate work can be done on chips, extending the use of photolithography in the chip manufacturing process. ``We need kind of a...quantum jump down in wavelength,'' Mogab said. With the current state of technology, photolithography is expected to reach its functional limit as a chip design process sometime around 2012, assuming the constant progression of Moore's Law. Moore's Law dictates that that the capacity of new chips will double about every 18 months. If that continues to hold true, at some point photolithographic processes will reach the physical limits of how much can be crammed into one space. Motorola plans to first become proficient in making the EUV masks, and then outsource the process to dedicated suppliers. By 2002, Motorola expects to begin using the masks and a prototype EUV tool to print smaller features on integrated circuits. Production EUV tools for manufacturing are not expected until 2005. Mogab said that by the time EUV goes into active use, the silicon wafers in use will be .05 microns thick, as opposed to the current .13 micron technology.