Moore's Law on the Slow Down: 15 Minute Series

On Monday, Oct 3, 2016, The Wall Street Journal wrote about Moore's Law and how its prognosis lately has slowed down. Moore's Law basically states that computer chip makers are likely to be able to double the number of transistors in the same sized chip from version to version (nearly every two years). According to WSJ,  Moore's Law is slowing down.

Wikipedia says: "Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. The observation is named after Gordon Moore . . . who described it as a doubling every year in the number of components per integrated circuit, and projected this rate of growth would continue for at least another decade."           

Well, that time is almost over.

To understand a microchip is made in six separate steps:

1. Silicon (found in sand) is melted down into a log
2. The log is sliced into thin wafers that look like an old-fashioned LP
3. The wafer is coated with a photosensitive film
4. ASML's light rays can draw extremely narrow lines onto the film (similar how film is developed in a darkroom)
5. Chemicals are then etched in a series of grid-like structures on the wafer that allows the transistors to process information
6. Wafers are then cut into rectangles and on their way to process-ville.

The article continued to state that an unknown company (ASML Holding) in the Netherlands may have a new process to help Moore's Law continue. Despite the fact that Intel's CEO, Brian Krzanich, stated last year that after decades of doubling chips, Moore's Law was heading to a 2.5-year turnaround. ASML Holding recently stated that they think they can keep the 2-year turnaround going through the inauguration of a new process. ASML's photolithography process uses light rays to layout billions of transistors, which is the brain cell of the chip, into a microprocessor.

To give you an idea of how precise this process is, take into consideration the fact that a human hair is 75,000 nanometers wide. The width of a new chip-line is 16 nanometers wide. For more information about this please go to the following link: http://www.wsj.com/articles/asml-steps-up-to-chip-industry-challenge-1475435759.