The technique, which creates highly uniform and scalable semiconductor wafers, could be especially useful during the ongoing chip shortage which has been squeezing manufacturers, telecommunications businesses and carmakers since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and is expected to last for several more years.
Semiconductor chips are typically fabricated on silicon wafers and then diced into the small chips that are used in devices. However, the process is imperfect and not all chips from the same wafer work or operate as desired. These defective chips are discarded, lowering semiconductor yield while increasing production cost.
The ability to produce uniform wafers at the desired thickness is the most important factor in ensuring that every chip fabricated on the same wafer performs correctly.
Nanotransfer-based printing – a process that uses a polymer mould to print metal onto a substrate through pressure, or ‘stamping’ – has gained traction in recent...