Researchers at the Berkeley Marvell Nanofabrication Laboratory at CITRIS will soon have access to a multimillion-dollar, next-generation semiconductor manufacturing system, thanks to a generous equipment donation from Lam Research.
To continue the advancement of Moore’s Law, which posits that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles approximately every two years, ever-tinier components are needed. Michael Helmbrecht, executive director of the Marvell NanoLab, said the new multichamber semiconductor etching system has the level of precision needed to manufacture the nanoscale components needed for such advanced systems.
“This semiconductor etching system allows us to remove material from wafers, one atom, one molecule at a time,” he said. “This is especially important as we design and manufacture nanometer-scale transistors.”