Plastic reaches to meet silicon guide.For cheap, flexible electronics made mainly from plastics to become feasible, scientists must find new ways to build integrated circuits Integrated circuits Miniature electronic circuits produced within and upon a single semiconductor crystal, usually silicon. Integrated circuits range in complexity from simple logic circuits and amplifiers, about 1/20 in. (1. . The methods used for today's semiconductor-and-metal components employ ultraviolet light Ultraviolet light A portion of the light spectrum not visible to the eye. Two bands of the UV spectrum, UVA and UVB, are used to treat psoriasis and other skin diseases. , solvents, and other chemicals that destroy plastics. Stephen Y. Chou and his colleagues at Princeton University Princeton University, at Princeton, N.J.; coeducational; chartered 1746, opened 1747, rechartered 1748, called the College of New Jersey until 1896. Schools and Research Facilities report a new technique, benign to polymers, that forms micrometer-scale patterns. The researchers enticed a flat, featureless coating of melted Plexiglas to grow upward to meet a silicon template, or mask. They found hints that the technique might also work for features smaller than a micrometer micrometer (mīkrŏm`ətər, mī`krōmē'tər). 1 Instrument used for measuring extremely small distances. , Chou says. The new, uplifting approach, described in the Aug. 16 APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS Applied Physics Letters is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Institute of Physics devoted to the publication of new experimental and theoretical papers about applications of physics to science, engineering, and modern technology. , differs radically from traditional circuit printing. There, semiconductor or metal atoms deposit except where a coating repels them. Why the new technique works is "unclear," says Chou, and therefore he finds it "scientifically very intriguing." |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion