US lab develops plasma etching method for next-gen computing chips

US lab develops plasma etching method for next-gen computing chips

Manufacturing transistors that combine silicon with transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) requires an extremely precise process. Engineers need to remove atoms only from the top sulfur layer while leaving the underlying layers intact.  The most common technique for doing this relies on plasma, an ionized state of matter also found in the Sun and stars, and a field extensively studied for decades at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Unde…