Computers used to be as big as a room. But now they fit in your pocket, on your wrist and can even be implanted inside of your body. How cool is that? And this has been enabled by the miniaturization of transistors, which are the tiny switches in the circuits at the heart of our computers. And it's been achieved through decades of development and breakthroughs in science and engineering and of billions of dollars of investment. But it's given us vast amounts of computing, huge amounts of memory and the digital revolution that we all experience and enjoy today.
以前,電腦的大小跟 一個房間一樣大。 但現在已經小到可以放到 口袋裡、戴在手腕上, 甚至可以植入你的身體中。 多酷啊? 這之所以能夠實現, 是因為電晶體的微型化, 電晶體是電路中的小型開關, 位在電腦的心臟部位。 微型化能成功,也是經過數十年 科學和工程的的發展及突破, 還有數十億美元的投資。 但,它給了我們非常大量的計算、 非常大量的記憶體, 以及我們現今大家都體驗到 且很享受的數位革命。
But the bad news is, we're about to hit a digital roadblock, as the rate of miniaturization of transistors is slowing down. And this is happening at exactly the same time as our innovation in software is continuing relentlessly with artificial intelligence and big data. And our devices regularly perform facial recognition or augment our reality or even drive cars down our treacherous, chaotic roads. It's amazing. But if we don't keep up with the appetite of our software, we could reach a point in the development of our technology where the things that we could do with software could, in fact, be limited by our hardware.
但,壞消息是, 我們很快就要碰到數位路障了, 因為電晶體微型化的 速度正在減緩。 這個狀況發生的同時, 因人工智慧以及大數據, 我們的軟體還在持續不斷創新。 且我們的裝置經常要執行 臉孔辨識或是虛擬實境, 或甚至要在我們變化莫測 又混亂的道路上自動開車。 這很不可思議。 但,如果我們趕不上 我們軟體的胃口, 我們的科技發展就有可能 會達到一個點, 在這個點,我們用軟體能夠做的事 其實會受限於我們的硬體。
We've all experienced the frustration of an old smartphone or tablet grinding slowly to a halt over time under the ever-increasing weight of software updates and new features. And it worked just fine when we bought it not so long ago. But the hungry software engineers have eaten up all the hardware capacity over time. The semiconductor industry is very well aware of this and is working on all sorts of creative solutions, such as going beyond transistors to quantum computing or even working with transistors in alternative architectures such as neural networks to make more robust and efficient circuits. But these approaches will take quite some time, and we're really looking for a much more immediate solution to this problem.
我們都遇過這樣的挫折: 老式手機或平板電腦 跑得又慢又辛苦,最後停下來, 因為裝在上面的軟體更新 和新功能帶來的負擔越來越大。 但不久前我們剛買來的時候 用起來還挺好的。 但飢渴的軟體工程師 隨時間吃光了全部的硬體能力。 半導體產業非常清楚這個狀況, 且在努力投入各種創意解決方案, 比如超越電晶體,採用量子計算, 或甚至在替代架構當中 使用電晶體, 比如類神經網路, 以製造出更穩健且有效率的電路。 但這些方法都要花相當的時間, 針對這個問題,我們真的期望 能有更立即的解決方案。
The reason why the rate of miniaturization of transistors is slowing down is due to the ever-increasing complexity of the manufacturing process. The transistor used to be a big, bulky device, until the invent of the integrated circuit based on pure crystalline silicon wafers. And after 50 years of continuous development, we can now achieve transistor features dimensions down to 10 nanometers. You can fit more than a billion transistors in a single square millimeter of silicon. And to put this into perspective: a human hair is 100 microns across. A red blood cell, which is essentially invisible, is eight microns across, and you can place 12 across the width of a human hair. But a transistor, in comparison, is much smaller, at a tiny fraction of a micron across. You could place more than 260 transistors across a single red blood cell or more than 3,000 across the width of a human hair. It really is incredible nanotechnology in your pocket right now. And besides the obvious benefit of being able to place more, smaller transistors on a chip, smaller transistors are faster switches, and smaller transistors are also more efficient switches.
電晶體微型化的速度 之所以慢下來的原因 是因為製程的複雜度不斷增加。 電晶體以前是大型笨重的裝置, 直到以純晶體矽晶圓為基礎的 積體電路被發明出來。 持續發展了五十年後, 現在我們可以把電晶體尺寸 縮小到只有十奈米。 你可以把超過十億個電晶體 放入一平方毫米的矽當中。 更清楚來說, 一根人類頭髮的寬度是一百微米。 一個紅血球細胞, 基本上是看不見的, 寬度是八微米, 所以,一根人類頭髮的寬度 約可放十二個紅血球細胞。 但,相對之下,電晶體更小, 寬度只有一微米的一小部分。 大約兩百六十個電晶體排在一起 才等同一個紅血球細胞的寬度, 或者,三千個電晶體排在一起, 才等同一根人類頭髮的寬度。 現在就在你口袋裡的奈米科技 真的很不可思議。 明顯的益處是能夠 在晶片上放更多較小的電晶體, 此外,較小的電晶體 也是較快的開關, 且較小的電晶體也是 比較有效率的開關。
So this combination has given us lower cost, higher performance and higher efficiency electronics that we all enjoy today.
所以,這種組合讓我們可以 取得成本較低、性能較佳、 效率較高的電子產品, 讓我們現今可以享用。
To manufacture these integrated circuits, the transistors are built up layer by layer, on a pure crystalline silicon wafer. And in an oversimplified sense, every tiny feature of the circuit is projected onto the surface of the silicon wafer and recorded in a light-sensitive material and then etched through the light-sensitive material to leave the pattern in the underlying layers. And this process has been dramatically improved over the years to give the electronics performance we have today.
要製造積體電路, 電晶體要一層一層打造 在純晶體矽晶圓上。 用極度簡化的方式來表示, 電路的每一項小特徵都會被投影 到矽晶圓的表面上, 記錄在光敏感的材料中, 接著透過光敏感的材料進行蝕刻, 在下方的各層留下圖案。 這些年來,這個流程 已經被大大地改善, 讓我們現今使用的電子產品 能有這樣的效能。
But as the transistor features get smaller and smaller, we're really approaching the physical limitations of this manufacturing technique. The latest systems for doing this patterning have become so complex that they reportedly cost more than 100 million dollars each. And semiconductor factories contain dozens of these machines. So people are seriously questioning: Is this approach long-term viable? But we believe we can do this chip manufacturing in a totally different and much more cost-effective way using molecular engineering and mimicking nature down at the nanoscale dimensions of our transistors.
但,隨著電晶體的特徵 變得越來越小, 我們已經越來越接近 這項製造技術的實體極限。 做這種曝影的最新系統 已經複雜到 據稱每台機器的成本要超過一億美元。 半導體工廠有數十台這類機器。 所以,大家會質疑: 長期來看,這種方式可行嗎? 但,我們相信我們可以用完全不同 且更有成本效益的方式來製造晶片, 將分子工程以及模仿自然的方式 運用到我們奈米尺度的電晶體上。
As I said, the conventional manufacturing takes every tiny feature of the circuit and projects it onto the silicon. But if you look at the structure of an integrated circuit, the transistor arrays, many of the features are repeated millions of times. It's a highly periodic structure. So we want to take advantage of this periodicity in our alternative manufacturing technique. We want to use self-assembling materials to naturally form the periodic structures that we need for our transistors. We do this with the materials, then the materials do the hard work of the fine patterning, rather than pushing the projection technology to its limits and beyond. Self-assembly is seen in nature in many different places, from lipid membranes to cell structures, so we do know it can be a robust solution. If it's good enough for nature, it should be good enough for us. So we want to take this naturally occurring, robust self-assembly and use it for the manufacturing of our semiconductor technology.
如我前面說過的,傳統製造方式 是把電路的微小特徵 投射到矽上面。 但如果你去看積體電路的結構, 電晶體陣列, 許多特徵其實被重覆了數百萬次。 它是種高度週期性的結構。 所以,我們想要把這種週期性 應用到我們的替代製造技術。 我們想要用自組裝的材料, 來自然形成我們的電晶體 所需要的週期性結構。 我們用適當的材料, 由材料來做難做的精緻圖形, 而不是把投影技術 推到極限或極限之外。 在大自然的許多地方 都可以看到自我組裝的例子, 從脂質膜到細胞結構, 因此,我們知道它可以是個 穩健的解決方案。 如果它對大自然來說夠好了, 那對我們來說應該也夠好了。 所以我們想要把這種大自然本有的 穩健的自我組裝方法 用在製造半導體的技術上。
One type of self-assemble material -- it's called a block co-polymer -- consists of two polymer chains just a few tens of nanometers in length. But these chains hate each other. They repel each other, very much like oil and water or my teenage son and daughter.
其中一種自組裝材料—— 叫做嵌段共聚物—— 含有兩個聚合物鏈, 長度只有幾十奈米。 但這些鏈痛恨彼此。 它們會互相排斥, 很像油和水,或是 我十幾歲的兒子和女兒。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
But we cruelly bond them together, creating an inbuilt frustration in the system, as they try to separate from each other. And in the bulk material, there are billions of these, and the similar components try to stick together, and the opposing components try to separate from each other at the same time. And this has a built-in frustration, a tension in the system. So it moves around, it squirms until a shape is formed. And the natural self-assembled shape that is formed is nanoscale, it's regular, it's periodic, and it's long range, which is exactly what we need for our transistor arrays.
我們用蠻力將它們結合在一起, 由於它們彼此互斥, 所以就就形成了內建的阻撓系統。 有大批這樣的材料,有數十億種, 類似的材料試圖黏合在一起, 而與此同時,對立的材料 則試圖與彼此分開。 這系統內建著阻撓與拉力。 它會到處移動、蠕動,直到成形。 自然自組的形狀小到奈米級, 它有規律,有週期性,範圍很長, 正如電晶體陣列所需。
So we can use molecular engineering to design different shapes of different sizes and of different periodicities. So for example, if we take a symmetrical molecule, where the two polymer chains are similar length, the natural self-assembled structure that is formed is a long, meandering line, very much like a fingerprint. And the width of the fingerprint lines and the distance between them is determined by the lengths of our polymer chains but also the level of built-in frustration in the system.
這樣我們就可以使用分子工程 來設計不同大小的不同形狀, 以及不同的週期。 比如,以一個對稱的分子為例, 在這個分子中, 兩個聚合物鏈的長度相近, 形成的自然自組結構 是一條很長且蜿蜒的線, 非常像是指紋。 而指紋線的寬度 和它們之間的距離 是根據我們聚合物鏈的 長度來決定的, 此外系統內建的阻撓程度 也是一個決定因子。
And we can even create more elaborate structures if we use unsymmetrical molecules, where one polymer chain is significantly shorter than the other. And the self-assembled structure that forms in this case is with the shorter chains forming a tight ball in the middle, and it's surrounded by the longer, opposing polymer chains, forming a natural cylinder. And the size of this cylinder and the distance between the cylinders, the periodicity, is again determined by how long we make the polymer chains and the level of built-in frustration.
如果我們能使用不對稱的分子, 我們甚至可以創造出 更精緻的結構, 不對稱的意思就是 兩條聚合物鏈的長度明顯不同。 在這個情況下形成的自組裝結構, 比較短的鏈會在中心 形成一個緊實的球, 它的周圍則是較長、 對立的聚合物鏈, 形成一個自然的圓柱。 這個圓柱的大小 以及圓柱間的距離,即週期性, 同樣也是取決於我們 製造的聚合物鏈的長度, 以及內建的阻撓程度。
So in other words, we're using molecular engineering to self-assemble nanoscale structures that can be lines or cylinders the size and periodicity of our design. We're using chemistry, chemical engineering, to manufacture the nanoscale features that we need for our transistors.
換言之,我們用分子工程 來自組奈米尺度的結構, 可以根據我們的設計來形成線條、 圓柱大小和週期不同的結構。 我們利用化學、化學工程, 將我們需要的奈米特性 製作在電晶體上。
But the ability to self-assemble these structures only takes us half of the way, because we still need to position these structures where we want the transistors in the integrated circuit. But we can do this relatively easily using wide guide structures that pin down the self-assembled structures, anchoring them in place and forcing the rest of the self-assembled structures to lie parallel, aligned with our guide structure. For example, if we want to make a fine, 40-nanometer line, which is very difficult to manufacture with conventional projection technology, we can manufacture a 120-nanometer guide structure with normal projection technology, and this structure will align three of the 40-nanometer lines in between. So the materials are doing the most difficult fine patterning.
但,自主組裝這些結構的能力 只能帶我們走到半路, 因為我們仍然需要 將這些結構放置在適當的位置, 而這些位置,就是我們希望 電晶體在積體電路中擺放的地方。 但我們能相對輕易地做到, 只要運用大範圍的指引結構, 將自組裝結構引導到 我們指定的固定位置, 迫使其餘的自組結構平行排列, 如此就能依照我們的建構方式 完成結構的組建。 比如我們想做一條 四十奈米長的細線, 很難用傳統的投影技術來製造, 但我們可以製造一個 一百二十奈米的結構引導通道, 用一般的投影技術就辦得到, 這個通道結構中會有 三條四十奈米互相對齊的線。 如此,材料才能完成 最困難的精緻曝影。
And we call this whole approach "directed self-assembly." The challenge with directed self-assembly is that the whole system needs to align almost perfectly, because any tiny defect in the structure could cause a transistor failure. And because there are billions of transistors in our circuit, we need an almost molecularly perfect system. But we're going to extraordinary measures to achieve this, from the cleanliness of our chemistry to the careful processing of these materials in the semiconductor factory to remove even the smallest nanoscopic defects.
我們把這整個方法叫做 「引導式自組裝」。 引導式自組裝的挑戰在於 整個系統需要近乎完美地 符合我們要的排列方式, 因為結構中若有任何微小的瑕疵, 都可能會造成電晶體故障。 因為我們的電路上 有數十億個電晶體, 我們需要一個接近 分子等級的完美系統。 但我們需要用到非常精準的量測工具 才能達成這個目標, 從化學的清潔, 到半導體工廠小心處理這些材料, 到移除最小的奈米尺度瑕疵。
So directed self-assembly is an exciting new disruptive technology, but it is still in the development stage. But we're growing in confidence that we could, in fact, introduce it to the semiconductor industry as a revolutionary new manufacturing process in just the next few years. And if we can do this, if we're successful, we'll be able to continue with the cost-effective miniaturization of transistors, continue with the spectacular expansion of computing and the digital revolution. And what's more, this could even be the dawn of a new era of molecular manufacturing. How cool is that?
所以,引導式自組裝是種 讓人興奮的顛覆性新技術, 但它還在開發階段。 但我們越來越有信心可以真的 把它引入到半導體產業, 做為一種革命性的新製程, 且在接下來幾年就可以做到。 如果我們能做到,如果我們成功, 我們將能夠把電晶體的 成本效益繼續微型化 , 繼續將計算能力大大擴展, 並帶來數位革命。 不只如此,這甚至可能是 分子製造新紀元的黎明。 這多酷啊?
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)