April 9, 1997
Contact: Louise Snider, 619/594-5204
Finding the flaw in the chip--
Technology developed at SDSU will aid semi-conductor industry
One of the primary reasons for circuit failure in semi-conductors--the
silicon chips that drive computers at high-speed and high-capacity-- is
heat build-up. A manufacturer whose quality-control process includes detection
of such flawed circuits in real time, so problems can be corrected promptly
on the assembly line, could realize major savings in time and money.
Such a quality-control process is now nearer reality
because of developments by the instrumentation section of San Diego State
University's Department of Astronomy.
Recognized throughout the world for their development
of electronic controls for the charge-coupled device used in telescopes,
they have adapted the technology for use with infrared cameras and microscopes.
Because silicon is transparent to IR imaging, an IR-sensitive microscope
could be used to diagnose fabrication problems, with images of the silicon
chip appearing on a computer display in real time. Similar IR-sensor technology,
developed by Rockwell for NASA, was installed recently in the upgrade to
the Hubbell telescope.
SDSU astronomer Robert Leach and engineer Frank
Beale developed the original technology, now used at more than 40 observatories
throughout the world, and adapted it for infrared-detection use,. Because
the potential demand far outstrips the University's production capability,
the University, in turn, has signed a licensing agreement with a manufacturer,
Infrared Laboratories, Inc., of Tucson, Arizona, which will pay SDSU a
royalty for each unit sold that uses the technology.
As part of the agreement, the University has fabricated
and delivered two prototype IR-detection units with electronic controls
to Infrared Laboratories, which has placed them for pilot-testing with
one of the world's leading semi-conductor manufacturers.
Dr. Frank Low, president and founder of Infrared
Laboratories and emeritus professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona,
says he likes the SDSU electronic controls because they are "so versatile....Working
together," says Low, "we'll (SDSU and Infrared Laboratories)
eventually have different versions of electronics and software that will
serve a variety of commercial and scientific applications."
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