Jan. 28, 2004 — Chances are, consumers will never see IBM’s (NYSE: IBM, News, Web) nanocrystal flash memory on the marketplace. But the self-assembly technique used for making the nanocrystals could become a cornerstone — and a building block — in Big Blue’s future miniaturized computing components.
IBM researchers Kathryn Guarini and Chuck Black made a splash on Dec. 9 at the IEEE’s International Electron Devices Meeting in Washington, D.C., when they announced that they made a nanocrystal version of flash memory. But IBM is more bedazzled by the versatility of the fabrication technique than the device, according to Guarini. The flash application allowed them to prove the feasibility of their approach.
“We don’t want to reinvent the wheel,” she said. “We want to take processes that already exist to get better performance and better functionality.”
IBM uses a technique developed at the University of Massachusetts that allows polymers to self-assemble into a honeycomb pattern with holes as small as 20 nanometers. The polymers then are placed as a stencil on silicon dioxide, a material compatible with today’s chip-making processes, for growing uniform nanocrystals.
Guarini said her research as a graduate student at Stanford University, where she specialized in maskless lithography techniques, taught her how to build nanostructures using probe tips. But she realized the laborious process was impractical for making anything in quantities.
“That led me to the belief that you have to allow the material to help you,” she said.
The self-assembled honeycomb shape is one of several patterns Guarini said they want to create using various self-assembling materials. Different geometries would serve different functions as memory or logic devices. And their self-assembly system could complement other nanotechnology initiatives at IBM, such as efforts to construct transistors using carbon nanotubes.
Placing nanotubes into desired positions is one of many challenges for making a nanotube-based transistor. A simpler and faster approach is to grow the nanotubes where they need to be. That may be possible by placing a catalyst into a honeycomb chamber from which the nanotube could form.
“We could pattern a surface that shows the nanotube where to start,” she said. … “There’s a host of nano-structures you can build based on this stencil.”
IBM is in a race with companies such as Intel Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Motorola Inc. to shrink components on chips for smaller, faster computing devices. The market for nanomaterials used in electronic devices will start in the billions and continue to grow, according to industry analysts at Business Communications Co. (BCC)
BCC projects that nanoelectronic memory devices will enter the market this year, and bring in $200 billion by 2013. Logic devices will have a more modest $20 billion market by 2013, BCC said in a report released in November.