Zplasma, a startup spun out of the University of Washington, hopes that its ability to harness super hot, stable plasma to make light will help the semiconductor industry continue its march to cram more transistors on a chip. Zplasma’s breakthrough is the shorter wavelength of light it can generate using plasma. At shorter wavelengths, the light generated by one of the machines used in making a chip can penetrate deeper into the chemicals deposited onto a wafer and etch finer lines on semiconductors — the finer the lines, the more transistors are able to fit.
via GigaOM
June 29, 2012
