GoKawiilCornell researchers have used high-resolution 3D imaging to detect, for the first time, the atomic-scale defects in computer chips that can sabotage their performance.
The imaging method, which was the result of a collaboration with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Advanced Semiconductor Materials (ASM), could touch almost every form of modern electronics, from phones and automobiles to AI data centers and quantum computing.
This image shows the silicon, silicon dioxide and hafnium oxide layers inside a transistor channel.
The research published Feb. 23 in Nature Communications. The lead author is doctoral student Shake Karapetyan.
“Since there’s really no other way you can see the atomic structure of these defects, this is going to be a really important characterization tool for debugging and fault-finding in computer chips, especially at the development stage,” said David Muller, the Samuel B. Eckert Professor of Engineering in the Cornell Duffield College of Engineering, who led the project.
Tiny defects have been a long-standing challenge for the semiconductor industry, especially now, as the technology has grown increasingly complex while the components have shrunk in size to the atomic scale.
The focus of the study, and the heart of the computer chip itself, is the transistor: the little switch through which electrical current flows via a channel that gets opened and shut by an electrical gate.
“The transistor is like a little pipe for electrons instead of water,” Muller said. “You can imagine, if the walls of the pipe are very rough, it’s going to slow things down. And so measuring how rough the walls are and which walls are good and which walls are bad is now even more important.”
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Muller has a unique insight into the design of semiconductors. From 1997 to 2003, he worked in the research and development division of Bell Labs – where transistors were invented – exploring the physical limits that dictate just how tiny a transistor could get.
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