A DROP of water may be all it takes to ensure microprocessors get ever more powerful and memory chips ever more dense. So say engineers who have made the first microprocessor fabricated using a technique that lets chip makers shrink transistors without having to resort to expensive new manufacturing technologies.
Microprocessors and memories are etched using a lithographic process in which ultraviolet light with a wavelength of 193 nanometres is projected through a mask that defines the shape of all the chip’s wiring and transistors. This wavelength can create chips with features as small as 65 nm, which should be…
