MIT Engineers Grow ‘High-Rise’ 3D Chips

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MIT engineers have developed a method to seamlessly stack electronic layers to create faster, denser, more powerful computer chips. The team deposits semiconducting particles (in pink) as triangles within confined squares, creating high-quality electronic elements directly atop other semiconducting layers (shown in layers of purple, blue, and green). Credit: Cube 3D Graphic

The electronics industry is approaching a limit to the number of transistors that can be packed onto the surface of a computer chip. So chip manufacturers are looking to build up, rather than out.

Talk NISTy to Me

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Right now, the U.S. and Germany have different approaches to defining, or realizing, as the researchers call it, the kilogram. Here, NIST researcher Darine Haddad looks on as German researcher Beatrice Rodiek places a sphere on NIST’s highly accurate weighing machine, known as the Kibble balance. The goal of the research is to get closer to the same definition using the different methods. Credit: B. Hayes/NIST

NIST is unique as the national measurement science institute. We are the U.S. agency responsible for maintaining measurement standards, from the second to the kilogram.

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