Advanced computing technologies are making great progress toward achieving high speed and low power consumption.
Key advancements in this field include novel silicon architectures that use layered designs to build faster and smaller chips at a lower cost. Meanwhile, photonic computing utilizes light waves to process and store data. With the speed of light simply unsurpassable, this can offer high speed and low latency.
Then, there is biological computing, where information is encoded and stored in biological cells, propelled by progress made in nanobiotechnology. Quantum computing also offers significant potential, solving complex problems faster than today’s computers by leveraging quantum superposition, entanglement, and interference.
Moreover, neuromorphic computing mimics the neural systems of our brains to perform parallel computations; cloud computing moves processing to remote or virtual locations; and edge computing shifts processing from centralized facilities closer to end users.
All these developments in computing technology, which focus on tools and systems for processing, storing, and communicating data, have led to unprecedented advancements in fields including artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics.
Ongoing research in the field has led to continued and rapid innovation in computing techniques, with scientists now going even deeper to achieve better, faster, and more efficient results.
Breakthrough in Laser Nanoscale Fabrication in Silicon
Researchers from Bilkent University, Turkey, recently achieved a significant breakthrough by developing a technique for fabricating nanostructures deep inside silicon wafers.
The new method enables nanofabrication within silicon through spatial light modulation and laser pulses, creating advanced nanostructures that will benefit electronics and photonics.
The study focused on silicon, the foundation of electronics, photonics, and photovoltaics. As a semiconductor, Silicon’s electrical conductivity lies between that of an insulator and a pure conductor. It is the second most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, possessing both metallic and non-metallic properties. Additionally, Silicon’s excellent electrical properties, including its relatively small energy gap, make it an important material in the semiconductor industry.
However, silicone has been limited to surface-level nanofabrication due to the difficulties posed by existing lithographic techniques. Current methods are either unable to penetrate the surface of the wafer without causing any changes or are restricted by the resolution of laser lithography. Additionally, existing techniques do not allow for high-precision modulation deep within the wafer.
If devices could be directly fabricated inside the bulk of this metal without altering the wafer’s top or bottom surface, it would set a new standard.
Of course, that means getting past all these challenges of a greater-than-1-micron fabrication resolution limit while simultaneously achieving multi-dimensional nanoscale control inside the wafer. Doing so, however, would be a magic advance, enabling 3D nanophotonics novel functionalities and leading to metasurfaces inside Si.
The latest research went on to exploit spatially modulated laser beams and anisotropic feedback from preformed subsurface structures to achieve this. This allowed the team to establish controlled nanofabrication capability inside Si by manipulating matter at the nanoscale.
To elaborate, the Bilkent team addressed the challenge of complex optical effects within the wafer and the inherent diffraction limit of the laser light by utilizing the unique laser pulse, which was created by modulating the spatial. The spatially modulated laser pulses correspond to a Bessel function.
The optical scattering effects, which had been obstructing the precise deposition of energy, were then overcome by the special laser beam’s non-diffracting nature. This non-diffracting nature is created with advanced holographic projection techniques, which allows for the precise localization of energy. This leads to high enough pressure and temperature values to modify the material at a small volume.
According to Onur Tokel, Professor at the Department of Physics:
“Our approach is based on localizing the energy of the laser pulse within a semiconductor material to an extremely small volume, such that one can exploit emergent field enhancement effects analogous to those in plasmonics. This leads to sub-wavelength and multi-dimensional control directly inside the material.”
He added:
“We can now fabricate nanophotonic elements buried in silicon, such as nanogratings with high diffraction efficiency and even spectral control.”
This was followed by an emergent seeding effect, where nano-voids performed on the subsurface created a strong field enhancement in their close surroundings. Once established, the resulting field enhancement sustains itself, which means that the creation of earlier nanostructures helps fabricate the later nanostructures.
Meanwhile, the use of laser polarization provided researchers with additional control over nanostructures’ alignment and symmetry at the nanoscale, which allows the accurate development of varied nano-arrays.
“By leveraging the anisotropic feedback mechanism found in the laser-material interaction system, we achieved polarization-controlled nanolithography in silicon.”
– The study lead author, Dr. Asgari Sabet
This new fabrication method has achieved feature sizes as small as 100 nm, which is a great improvement over the conventional regimes.
This study could have considerable implications for systems at the nanoscale with specific structures by demonstrating large-area volumetric nanostructuring with multi-dimensional control and features beyond the diffraction limit. According to the researchers, potential future advances resulting from this study may include metamaterials, metasurfaces, information processing applications, and photonic crystals.
The research also shows substantial potential for integration with on-chip systems, with the introduced nanograting capability being a step toward this goal. The study notes that it also constitutes the first multi-layer Si photonics.
Overall, the study has introduced “a new fabrication paradigm for silicon. The ability to fabricate at the nano-scale directly inside silicon opens up a new regime toward further integration and advanced photonics,” said Prof. Tokel. The next step for the study is to investigate whether complete 3D nano-fabrication in Si can be achieved.
Click here to learn how advanced nanophotonics will help us build a better smartphone.
Nanomaterials Paving the Way for Next-Gen Computing
As we saw above, researchers are targeting nanostructure for better results. Nanotechnology is all about controlling matter at the nanoscale, ranging from 1 to 100 nanometers in size.
At such a tiny scale, we can experience unique properties and behaviors of materials, enabling researchers and engineers to manipulate them for various applications. As a result, nanotechnology has broad implications across many industries, including energy, electronics, medicine, and materials science.
With great potential for addressing some of the world’s most pressing challenges, nanotechnology has been rapidly evolving with continuous advances and breakthroughs, especially in computing and electronics. Nanotechnology has actually contributed greatly to major advancements in these sectors, which have led to faster, smaller, and more portable systems.
For instance, nanomaterials like graphene and carbon nanotubes have shown promise in creating flexible and transparent electronics.
Nanostructures have transformed the fields of semiconductors and computing by enhancing the electrical, optical, and magnetic properties of materials beyond their bulk counterparts.
In this context, progress is being made in quantum computing and communication using nanoscale quantum bits. Additionally, research continues to develop nanomaterials for high-capacity, fast-charging batteries and supercapacitors. Meanwhile, advances in nanoscale fabrication techniques are enabling the creation of miniaturized devices and components with powerful performance.
By enabling the development of smaller and more efficient devices such as nanoscale transistors and memory chips, nanotechnology has tremendously increased computing power and storage capacity, pushing the limits of Moore’s Law.
The Moore’s Law referenced here was formulated by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, who posited that the number of transistors on a single chip would double approximately every two years, with minimal rise in cost.
If we look into that, it was in the 1950s that transistors first began replacing vacuum tubes as the key component of electronic circuits. While the initial transistors were typically a centimeter long, they were soon measured in millimeters.
Fast forward to the beginning of this century, the size had been reduced to between 130 to 250 nanometers, only to further downsize to a mere 14 nanometers about a decade ago. Then, in 2015, IBM halved this size by creating the first seven-nanometer transistor. This journey towards smaller yet better and faster transistors continues even today.
In the last few years, the smallest transistor size in production has been reduced to 3 nm, with IBM announcing a 2 nm transistor in May 2021, which is smaller than a strand of DNA. We focus on transistors because they are fundamental to powering almost every electronic device.
Interestingly, the smaller these transistors get, the less power they consume and the faster they become. However, many believe that you can only make something smaller for so long, and eventually, we won’t be able to continue downsizing. That’s when new nanomaterials and advanced technology will be needed to improve our devices.
This has led scientists to shift their focus to technologies like neuromorphic systems, which require developing new artificial neurons and synapses that can exceed the performance of standard CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) circuits.
By using artificial neurons and synapses, these computers simulate how human brains process information. This allows them to recognize patterns, solve problems, and make decisions more efficiently and quickly than current computers. Although this field is still new, it shows promise in cognitive computing, autonomous vehicles, and AI, where speed and efficiency are important.
Researchers are also exploring new classes of materials, such as quantum dots and graphene, to meet the needs of advanced computing. Recent studies have explored Quantum Dot Cellular Automata (QCA) to design nano-scale computers with improvements in both speed and efficiency.
Besides graphene, 2D materials like transition metal dichalcogenides (2D-TMDs) are being considered for use in semiconductors. This material’s wide surface area allows for efficient light interaction and enhances its appropriation for manipulating light, while its unusual charge carrier mobility boosts device performance. Its durability makes it resilient for various real-world applications.
As noted above, the latest research achieving nanofabrication inside silicon also aims to enable the next generation of silicon-based chips with far greater processing power.
Click here for a list of top companies working to advance the nanotechnology field.
Companies Working on Advanced Computing Tech
If we consider companies involved in this field, Applied Materials (AMAT) provides nanomanufacturing technology for advanced semiconductors. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) develops high-performance computing hardware and explores advanced computing technologies.
NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA), known for its GPUs, is also heavily invested in quantum computing research. Nvidia supercomputers are being used to develop quantum annealing systems to solve specific problems. NVIDIA, often referred to as the ‘AI darling,’ has seen its shares rise 157% year-to-date (YTD).
The company recorded record sales of $26bln in 1Q24, up 18% from the previous quarter and 262% from a year earlier. The corporation also announced a ten-for-one stock split on June 7, 2024, and upped its quarterly cash dividend to $0.01.
Let’s now take a look at the companies that pioneer research in advanced computing, nanotechnology, and innovations in chip design.
#1. IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is a popular tech company that is involved in cloud and AI opportunities. Its focus is on researching quantum computing and advancing semiconductor technology.
Over the past year, the company introduced its latest generation quantum processor, the IBM Heron, which has 133 fixed-frequency qubits and a three- to fivefold improvement in device performance.
According to Jay Gambetta, VP at IBM Quantum:
“The full power of using quantum computing will be powered by generative AI to simplify the developer experience.”
The company has a market cap of $180.57bln, and its shares trade at $195.51, up 19.86% YTD. Its dividend yield is 3.41%. For 2Q24, IBM reported revenue of $15.8bln, an increase of 2% from the previous year.
The free cash flow, meanwhile, was $2.6bln, which the company raised to $12bln for the full-year view, with $1.5bln returned to shareholders in dividends during the period. The company ended the quarter with $16bln in cash, restricted cash, and marketable securities. While noting IBM’s expertise in enterprise AI and its generative AI business growing to over $2bln since Watsonx’s launch a year ago, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna:
“We had a strong second quarter, exceeding our expectations.”
#2. Intel Corporation
Intel Corporation (INTC) innovates chip designs and explores neuromorphic and quantum computing. This semiconductor chip maker is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, which are found in most personal computers. The company is currently working on regaining its edge in global chipmaking, for which it received funding via grants and loans from the US government.
Through neuromorphic research, Intel aims to accelerate the future of adaptive AI by co-designing optimized hardware with next-generation AI software. Additionally, Intel has established the Intel Neuromorphic Research Community (INRC). This global collaborative effort unites teams from research institutions, academic groups, companies, and government labs to advance the frontier of brain-inspired AI.
The company has a market cap of $89.56bln, and its shares trade at $21.06, down 58.23% YTD. For 2Q24, Intel reported “disappointing” financial results, with revenue coming in at $12.8bln, down 1% YoY, while non-GAAP EPS was $0.02. The company announced a suspended dividend starting in the fourth quarter of 2024 while reiterating its “long-term commitment to a competitive dividend as cash flows improve to sustainably higher levels.”
Conclusion
Advanced computing, which focuses on new methods and technologies that drive innovative computing methods, is attracting significant interest from companies, researchers, engineers, and governments alike. After all, it is fundamental to cybersecurity, financial markets, and many other critical infrastructures. Moreover, the widespread use of AI is supported by advanced computing power, along with data, algorithms, and microchips.
Over the past few decades, advances in computing technology have significantly enhanced the performance and functionality of devices we regularly use, thereby fueling the growth of the digital economy. Given its profound impact on society, continued research and development are a must to meet the demands of power-hungry computation and pave the way for advanced computing, enabling the creation of products and services that were previously unimaginable.
Click here for a list of the top best nanotechnology stocks.