Future graphene-chip technologies, meanwhile, could borrow many of the methods already used for creating
silicon chips. Chip production uses a top-down approach, which starts with large sheets of crystalline silicon and uses sophisticated lithography techniques to etch circuitry into them.
For some years now, scientists have managed to achieve a steady increase in the number of transistors that can be squeezed onto one
silicon chip. The typical rate of increase has been a factor of ten every three years.
MEMS are made up of mechanical microstructures, sensors, actuators and microelectronics integrated together in the sealed environment of a
silicon chip. Though they essentially mimic the workings of their larger predecessors, because the scale of the components is so tiny the response time to inputs is almost immediate.
"We are very pleased that SafeNet, one of the leading expert security companies in the world, has chosen MultiPrime technology for use in SafeXcel
silicon chips to secure and accelerate wireless transactions," said Gary Lefkowitz, director of marketing for Compaq Atalla Security Products.
Why should a postal service, reliant on the visible written word, indulge itself with faddish lovers of invisible marks on
silicon chips and superfluous electronic communicational devices?
HP's patented process could help create microchips as powerful as next-generation
silicon chips, but 1,000 times smaller and less expensive.
The receivers in use now typically have 10 to 20 GaAs chips compared to only three of the new
silicon chips. Lucent claims the new system is 100 times smaller at a cost savings of 10 to 100 times and will have the effect of improving quality and lessening the cost of wireless networks.
Steel blades reduce plastics, metal, rubber, paper, CD-ROMs, data cartridges,
silicon chips, Tyvek, and Mylar into confetti-sized particles.
The planar waveguide process involves placing glass fibres on
silicon chips in order to provide pathways capable of routing a light signal between fiber optic strands.
One key element of our conversation was the use of
silicon chips. Chips, he explained, had been embedded in employee identification tags at his company.
The breakthrough could see
silicon chips replaced by bio-organisms capable of storing mind-boggling amounts of information.
The division of Philips Electronics NV, Europe's largest semiconductor manufacturer, says that its new EZ-HV process allows the simpler integration of high-voltage (HV) and low-voltage analog and digital circuitry on
silicon chips. Philips says that the difference between the EZ-HV process and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) techniques pioneered by IBM Corp, is that SOI chips with high voltage transistors need a thick layer of silicon to guarnatee insulation.