The World in 2030

The World in 2030 63
And the device takes only a few minutes to install.
The machine is a system for imprint lithography. Imprint
lithography sounds like what it is: a mold with
an intricate pattern is pressed into a substrate, which
creates a pattern. The grooves and channels created in
the substrate are then filled with metal to make wires.
What makes imprint lithography different from a
waffle iron or a rubber stamp are the dimensions. The
HP-Nanolitho system is capable of creating grooves
that will measure as small as 15 nanometers, smaller
than the width of wires in today’s chip. The mold, or
module, does not make grooves in silicon, but in a
thin layer of polymer on top of the silicon. 123
I am of the opinion that no insurmountable physical barrier
to ever accelerating microprocessor development lies ahead
in the foreseeable future. It is clear that a move to nanoscale
fabrication will be needed and new materials may very
well be required (and here plastics will play a significant
role) but I have no doubt that in a quarter of a century’s
time commentators will still be wondering whether there
is any end in sight for the exponentially accelerating
development of microprocessors (or will they then be called
nanoprocessors?). VI
VI
In August 2007 IBM’s Zurich Research Lab demonstrated a molecular switch that could replace current
silicon-based chip technology with processors so small that a supercomputer could fit on a chip
the size of a speck of dust. IBM also claims its atomic-scale demonstration promises to pack up to
1,000 times as much information on a hard disk than current technologies. Such hard disks could
store 30,000 full-length movies on a device the size of an iPod.