New low in micro-miniaturization no small feat for manager of Hughes Research Lab.New low in micro-miniaturization no small feat for manager of Hughes Research Lab Micro-miniaturizers at Hughes Research Laboratories In the 1940's, Howard Hughes created a R&D facility in Culver City, California; by the early 1960's, it had been moved to Malibu, California. Through a series of business transactions, it was brought under the ownership of Boeing and General Motors, its LLC partners. have shrunk it again. They produced a focused ion beam Focused ion beam, also known as FIB, is a technique used particularly in the semiconductor and materials science fields for site-specific analysis, deposition, and ablation of materials. The FIB is a scientific instrument that resembles a scanning electron microscope. approximately one three-millionth of an inch thick, an apparent world record. The etching tool could be used to create electronic circuitry perhaps 100 to 1,000 times smaller and faster than available today. "People have said you could put a whole supercomputer on a single chip - but that's still speculation," said Dr. Randall Kubena, 40, who managed the project for the lab's micro-fabrication science department. Commercial uses are several years away, he estimated. Such a beam could etch a channel onto a computer chip too narrow to accommodate the electrons traveling by. "We're getting into dimensions where one has to worry about the atomic dimensions of the electrons that carry the electricity. They start oozing oozing exudation of fluid. into other regions of your device," said Kubena, following the late May announcement. Silicon, the traditional substance of chips, is not good enough. The Hughes scientists "write" ultra-small circuitry onto faster, more exotic materials, like gallium arsenide An alloy of gallium and arsenic compound (GaAs) that is used as the base material for chips. Several times faster than silicon, it is used in high frequency applications such as cellphones, DVD players and fiber optics. or indium phosphide phosphide Any of a class of chemical compounds in which phosphorous is combined with a metal. Phosphides exhibit a wide variety of chemical and physical properties. Phosphides that are rich in metal have high melting points and are hard, brittle, and chemically inert; these . The technology heralds a new generation of micro-miniaturization, governed by quantum electronics. The turning on and off of currents would be controlled by quantum principles. Essentially electrons can no longer be considered discrete particles, like billiard bil·liard adj. Of, relating to, or used in billiards. n. See carom. Adj. 1. billiard - of or relating to billiards; "a billiard ball"; "a billiard cue"; "a billiard table" balls, but like waves governed by quantum effects, explained the Dallas native. The Hughes research lab, staffed by 260 scientists, is owned by electronics titan Hughes Aircraft Co., a General Motors division. PHOTO : Team members: Randall Kubena, seated, with Gary Atkinson, left, and J.W. Ward |
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