Chinese Academy of Sciences Develops Artificial Sapphire for Low-Power Chip

TapTechNews August 7th news, with the continuous miniaturization of electronic devices and the increase in performance requirements, the number of transistors in chips continues to increase and the size is shrinking day by day, also bringing new technical challenges, especially in the aspect of dielectric materials.

After years of research and tackling key problems, the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has successfully developed an artificial sapphire as the wafer of the insulating dielectric, providing important technical support for the development of low-power chips. The relevant results have been published in the international academic journal Nature today (TapTechNews attaches DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07786-2).

The dielectric materials in electronic chips mainly play the role of insulation, but when the thickness of traditional dielectric materials is reduced to the nanometer level, its insulation performance will significantly decrease, resulting in current leakage. This not only increases the energy consumption of the chip, but also leads to an increase in heat generation, affecting the stability and service life of the device.

The research team has developed an innovative metal intercalation oxidation technology to solve this problem.

Officials said that by using this new type of material, the research team has currently successfully fabricated low-power chip devices, and the endurance and operating efficiency have been greatly improved. This achievement is not only of great significance for the battery life of smart phones, but also provides strong support for the development of low-power chips in the fields of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. It is said that although this material is artificially synthesized, its crystal structure, dielectric properties, and insulation properties are the same as those of gems in real life.

According to the introduction, this dielectric material of the crystal realizes single-crystalline aluminum oxide as the dielectric material through the technology of intercalation oxidation, and it can achieve a very low leakage current at 1 nanometer.