Given that today’s advanced chips can contain billions of transistors, 60 miles of copper wiring and 10 billion vertical connections between metal layers, the challenges and potential pitfalls this level of complexity presents are mind-boggling. One major problem on the horizon at 20nm and below is the threat of voids forming in the vertical interconnects commonly called vias.

As I watched the opening ceremony of the London Olympics, I was impressed – not just with the amazing production – but with the hundreds of smiling athletes from countries around the globe who have worked so hard and long to realize their dream of international competition. They have developed unique talents, persevered in the face of challenges, and focused with tremendous determination to reach a goal that puts them on a global stage.

It wasn’t much of a stretch for me to think of the social entrepreneurs and leaders of nongovernmental agencies who do the same thing each day … they lock their sights on a goal and drive themselves and their organizations to fulfill a vision of making a positive impact on society. Although the scale is different, the annual Tech Awards, presented by Applied Materials, are the Olympics for innovators who are using technology to benefit humanity and for philanthropists like Narayana Murthy who is a champion in using the power of technology to improve the way people live.

With 15 years of experience in the Display industry at Applied Materials, I have witnessed firsthand the dynamic advances that have taken place in display technologies.  But as remarkable as these advances have been; the excitement and promise of displays are their ability to allow for the interaction of the shared human experience.

Last Friday marked one of the great anniversaries in the history of live broadcast television, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to reflect on this moment in time and briefly describe the giant leaps made in display technology over the last 40 years.Read more

If you were to slice up a microchip and take a look (you’d need a really powerful microscope, I'm afraid) you would see what looks like a nanoscale layer cake.

All the active circuit elements – transistors, memory cells etc. – are on the bottom. The other 90% of the chip is a maze of tiny copper wires, which we call interconnects.

The history of chip development is all about shrinking circuit features. When the transistors shrink, so must the interconnects. Today, the smallest interconnects can be  fewer than 200 atoms across.

In this video, I take a quick look at how the interconnect fabrication process is done and then demonstrate how our revolutionary copper reflow technology works.

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Etch.

A very short word for a hugely important technology, without which there would be no microchips. Etch is the process by which images of circuit features printed on a silicon wafer are engraved into the films below. Put another way, etch makes circuits real.

Last week, I blogged about how our latest innovations in plasma etch technology can help chipmakers construct 3D Flash memory arrays. In fact, etch has been solving cutting-edge problems for more than three decades.

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