[HN Gopher] Ultraprecise method of aligning 3D semiconductor chi...
___________________________________________________________________
Ultraprecise method of aligning 3D semiconductor chips invented
Author : thebeardisred
Score : 111 points
Date : 2024-11-01 02:25 UTC (6 days ago)
(HTM) web link (techxplore.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (techxplore.com)
| lawlessone wrote:
| Could this also be used for manufacturing lots of other
| microscopic things? layer by layer?
|
| "Instead, their method finds errors up to 0.017 nm along side-to-
| side measures (x and y axes) and 0.134 nm when assessing the
| distance between the two chips (z-axis)."
|
| Could you make some very very sensitive and tiny seismic sensors
| with this?
|
| edit: " Arbabi also points out that this method can be used to
| make displacement sensors that can be used for measuring
| displacements and other quantities. "Many physical quantities
| that you want to detect can be translated to displacements, and
| the only thing you need is a simple laser and a camera," he says.
|
| For instance, "if you want a pressure sensor, you could measure
| the movement of a membrane." Anything that involves movement--
| vibration, heat, acceleration--can in theory be tracked by this
| method.
|
| "
| g5pw wrote:
| I made a home-brew seismic sensor using something similar, a
| hard disk head arm assembly, a cd-rom laser (which has an
| anisotropic lens and four photodiodes) and a Red Pitaya used as
| PID, so I guess it can be done!
| Etheryte wrote:
| Maybe I'm missing something here, doesn't this simply move the
| precision problem to a different part of manufacturing?
| Previously you had to be precise with aligning the chips, now you
| have to be precise with how you put those alignment marks on the
| chips you want to align. Am I missing something here? Or is it
| considerably easier to put the marks on the chips with sufficient
| precision?
| dooglius wrote:
| I would think the alignment marks would be included in the
| photomasks, so they would be part of the chips themselves
| lambda wrote:
| Putting marks on the chip with high precision is much easier;
| that's done by the same kind of lithographic process that's
| used for building up all the other layers of the chip, which is
| generally via exposing a photosensitive layer of material with
| light through a mask, and they already have ways of keeping
| those mask layers in alignment.
|
| But aligning multiple chips together is a different process,
| and while it sounds like they previously had ways to do this
| via simple optical inspection of those alignment marks, that's
| less accurate than a holographic alignment using a laser.
| iandanforth wrote:
| The last bit about using this same technique for sensors is
| pretty cool. Ultra-sensitive microphones or touch sensors would
| be pretty awesome.
| jrh3 wrote:
| Nothing is invented, only discovered.
| mhb wrote:
| Maybe that's very clever or just dumb semantic nitpicking, but
| unless you say more no one will know which you think it is.
| perching_aix wrote:
| > Nothing is invented, only discovered.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention
|
| https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/inventio...
|
| https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/invention
|
| https://www.britannica.com/technology/invention-technology
|
| my opinion alarm is jumping off the desk over here, sheesh
| nomel wrote:
| That's a bit reductive. Without a human mind putting effort to
| wander the concept space, that concept would never be touched,
| and it would never be realized. The claim that all logical
| things that can exist already exist since they're an
| inescapable eventual logical conclusion seems a bit silly.
|
| All that said, I do mostly agree.
| heisenbit wrote:
| Isn't this very similar to the way optical position encoders
| work?
| RachelF wrote:
| This is not novel in general - the same technique has been used
| in lens alignment for decades.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-11-07 23:00 UTC)