Isolation properties of sapphire New chip isolator developed in China

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Moore's Law states that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles approximately every two years. The implementation of this forecast by Gordon Moore increasingly requires the discovery and development of new materials in today's times. Among other things, researchers in China have taken up this task.

If the phone gets too hot while charging... then its chips are not equipped with the latest isolator from China. Researchers in Shanghai have just developed it from synthetic sapphire, as they report in an article in the science magazine Nature.

The new film, only a few atoms thick, can be used as a dielectric layer, with the help of which novel, powerful chips can be developed that heat up less quickly and consume less energy, report the Chinese scientists. This could extend the lifespan of mobile phones and other electronic devices in the future, and it also suggests that better chips for artificial intelligence and IoT devices will be possible in the future, according to the paper.

Effectiveness in the nanometer range

Modern semiconductors are becoming increasingly complex and an ever-increasing number of transistors are being installed in ever smaller spaces. Conventional insulation material, which ensures the correct flow of electricity on the wafers, loses its effect in the nanometer range.

To solve this problem, team leaders Di Zengfeng and Tian Zao in their lab have infused single-crystal aluminium wafers at room temperature with oxygen atoms to produce a "single-crystal aluminium oxide layer, which is only 1.25 nanometers thick". "Although it is synthetically produced, this film exhibits a crystal structure and insulating properties that are comparable to those of natural sapphire," writes Tian Zao on the website of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The two researchers and their team are working at the "State Key Laboratory of Materials for Integrated Circuits" at the "Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology", which belongs to the Academy.

The artificial sapphire film was then combined with a two-dimensional substrate of molybdenum sulfide to replace the silicon in conventional chips and to manufacture energy-saving transistor arrays. "The result points towards circuits with higher performance," writes the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong.

The relatively simple method of producing the novel insulator means that it can be easily scaled for industrial production, the researchers told Chinese state media in interviews. Synthetic sapphire is also compatible with existing silicon-based chip manufacturing processes, they said. Their development represents a significant advance in the "application of two-dimensional semiconductor materials in the industrial environment," the researchers write.

Surprising resonance

Against the backdrop of the chip war, which the US government and its allies have started against China with boycotts of high-performance chips and equipment for their production, the invention received more attention in China's state media than materials science usually receives.

"This advance not only has substantial implications for extending the battery life of smartphones, but also helps in the development of energy-saving chips for artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT)," commented the state television station CCTV.

From another perspective, the development of the new insulating material for circuits is another example of the growing importance of performance materials, as the miniaturization of chips and Moore's law continue to push their physical limits.

The demands on insulators have particularly increased, not only because of the higher number of transistors per circuit, but also because of the growing complexity of their arrangement. The materials, so far including silicon dioxide (SiO2), which are applied to the wafers for this purpose, are therefore sometimes called the "secret heroes in the microchip". (sb)

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