After realizing that it is reaching end-of-life with current lithographic techniques, Intel is smartly making the investments necessary to keep Dr. Gordon Moore’s prediction alive.
With the announcement earlier this week of its $4 billion investment in ASML, an EU company looking to make inroads into the ever-shrinking die sizes needed to make smaller, faster, cooler chips.
ASML is pioneering ultraviolet lithography, commonly known as EUV lithography. EUV would allow for chips a lot smaller than the 11 nm envisioned for the next gen of chips.
According to MIT’s Technology Review, ,
EUV uses light to write a pattern into a chemical layer on top of a silicon wafer, which is then chemically etched into the silicon to make chip components. EUV lithography uses very high energy ultraviolet light rays that are closer to X-rays than visible light. That's attractive because EUV light has a short wavelength—around 13 nanometers—which allows for making smaller details than the 193-nanometer ultraviolet light used in lithography today. But EUV has proved surprisingly difficult to perfect.
The magazine also has a nice write-up, The Moore’s Law Moon Shot, that tries to explain why Intel is going this route.
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