Digital Electronics at the Atomic Limit

Dr. Shashank Misra
Sandia National Lab

Seminar Recording

ABSTRACT: Increasing tooling and development costs are poised to disrupt the microelectronics ecosystem, where the number of companies choosing to pursue the latest manufacturing nodes is constantly shrinking. In this context, it makes sense to relax the requirement for achieving scalable manufacturing to evaluate opportunities based on the physical limit of atoms, and not just based on incremental gains that can be achieved with volume fabrication one or two generations in the future. Here, we examine progress in creating digital microelectronics using atomic precision advanced manufacturing (APAM), which leverages surface chemistry to incorporate dopants into silicon with atomic precision. At first pass, this technique appears to be a poor candidate for application to digital microelectronics – it has mostly been used to fabricate simple “one-off” devices that function only at cryogenic temperatures. Our work focuses on making complex devices that work at room temperature, enabling tactile control over transistor technologies that hold promise for energy efficient computing. APAM also produces such a high density of dopants that it transforms the electronic structure of silicon, opening the door to nearer-term impact. To enable these benefits, we also detail our efforts to directly integrate APAM into a CMOS manufacturing workflow, and to extend APAM to volume wafer- scale fabrication at reduced resolution.

BIOGRAPHY: Shashank Misra earned a doctorate in physics from  the University of Illinois – Urbana, Champaign in 2005, and since 2013, has been a member of the research staff at Sandia National Laboratories. His research interests have revolved around developing instruments and techniques that provide new access to exotic phases in quantum materials, and quantum effects in semiconductors. More recently, his interests have turned to using STM- based lithography to fabricate atomically-precise dopant devices in semiconductors. He leads the Far- Reaching Applications, Implications, and Realization of Digital Electronics at the Atomic Limit (FAIR DEAL) program at Sandia.