Tufts Develops New, More Sustainable Method for Manufacturing Microchips

Putting 50 billion transistors into a microchip the size of a fingernail is a feat that requires manufacturing methods of nanometer level precision—layering of thin films, then etching, depositing, or using photolithography to create the patterns of semiconductor, insulator, metal, and other materials that make up the tiny working devices within the chip. The process relies heavily on solvents that carry and deposit materials in each layer—solvents that can be difficult to handle and toxic to...