Microchip fabs in the United States can cram billions of data-processing transistors into a small silicon chip, but the critical device, which is the “clock”, over time, the operation of those transistors will be carried out separately. – creates a weak point in the crack. security and supply line. A new approach uses commercial chip makers and processes to create unique transistors that serve as the building blocks of modern devices, address weaknesses and provide new functionality through better integration.
“You have to have one chip that does it all instead of having many chips, many manufacturing methods, and many things that have to be connected – usually done abroad,” said Dana Weinstein, a professor of electrical and computer engineering. at Purdue University said. , which develops acoustic resonators and processes used to create industrial-grade field-effect transistors (FinFETs). “America needs to improve its explosives manufacturing capabilities, and impacts of this nature address multiple supply, national security and physical security concerns. By moving all the clocks into the processor, you make the device stronger against clock hacking attacks and enable new features like chip-integrated voice fingerprints for tamper detection.
Like all transistors – the devices that power modern microelectronics – FinFETs are voltage turned on or off. As the name suggests, FinFET current passes through the side of the semiconductor material that passes through the gate. When closed, or off, the fin does not conduct electricity. The voltage applied to the grid creates an electrical charge on the fin, allowing electricity to flow when it is opened or turned on.
But transistors must be compatible to work for the microprocessors, sensors, and radios used in all electronic devices. The devices that do this are built with sound, the frequency that results from some construction, such as a bowl that can produce a single note when pinged. The frequency of the so-called acoustic resonator serves as a cadence that is incorporated into a large micro-electromechanical system and is used as a time signal. Current commercial micro-electromechanical resonators cannot be manufactured with standard chip manufacturing processes and must be manufactured separately and integrated into microchips for use.
Weinstein’s innovation is to build an excited resonator with existing materials and manufacturing processes found in standard metal-oxide semiconductor manufacturers. In a recent article in Nature Electronics, his research team reports their most advanced design to date. Using a commercial process developed at GlobalFoundries Fab 8 in New York and described in the GlobalFoundries 14LPP FinFET Technology Design Handbook, the team developed a unique FinFET that can produce frequencies in the range of 8-12 gigahertz, which more than that. typical clocks of microprocessors.
An elegant solution uses data processing transistors and timing devices.
“From our approach, the chip maker puts this device through the same process that they would use for designing a central processing unit or other applications,” said Jackson Anderson, a Purdue graduate student at electrical engineering said. Electronics. . “When the microprocessor and other components are finished, so is the resonator. It does not need to be reworked or sent elsewhere for connecting to a different microprocessor chip.
Although the on or off state of a transistor is usually the 0s and 1s of a binary code, all transistors can be used as capacitors to store and release charge. Weinstein’s team does that with “drive” transistor arrays, forcing and releasing t “We force the layers between the gate and the semiconductor, pushing and pulling in that area important between the gate and the semiconductor. fin,” Jackson said. “We do this again with adjacent transistors – one compressing, the other stretching – creating lateral vibrations in the device.”
Driver transistors are configured to conduct and amplify vibrations by relying on each other within a single resonant frequency. This, in turn, stretches and turns the semiconductor material on the side of the “sense” transistors, which changes the character of the current through these transistors, turning the sound into a signal electric.
“Every high-end electronic device that you have uses FinFETs,” Weinstein said. “Combining these features makes our microelectronics capabilities beyond simple digital microprocessors. If technology changes, we can adapt, too
