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Chips are built differently from your standard 3D printing process: 3D is additive or subtractive, while chips are mask-deposit-strip (filter, additive, subtrac

Chips are built differently from your standard 3D printing process: 3D is additive or subtractive, while chips are mask-deposit-strip (filter, additive, subtractive?). Keep in mind that the reason we can get to those sizes on microchips is through mind-boggling optical engineering on the masking step. I remember a prof explaining in the clean room over one of our Perkin-Elmer lithography stations that it takes years to redesign the systems for new wavelengths; the application's precision demands that each optical system is specifically engineered and tailored to that wavelength. Get rid of the masking stage and you've got the missing link to 3D printing. But that would require nigh magical levels of control over a particle beam. Which could totally be solvable to a sufficiently clever team of engineers and a sufficiently robust and controllable beam source. But add that basically nothing behaves itself on those scales, especially machines, and there's still tons of work left. But you're right like Feynman was all those years ago: you can totally imagine it is plausible, so there's no way we won't try! (Great, now I want to go back into microtech...)

marcosdumay 13y ago
> Get rid of the masking stage and you've got the missing link to 3D printing. But that would require nigh magical levels of control over a particle beam. Quite like in an electron microscope. Ok, most electron microscopes are way less precise than top of line lithography, but there there are some that are more. 3D printing with controlled ion deposition would be expensive as hell, but I see no reason why it could not be done. Anyway, I was talking about iterating the filter - add - subtract pattern. Our current low precision is the reason we only iterate a few times. With increased precision, we can do it more. Yep, any advance here requires years and a lot of investiment. But they always come through.
- HCIdivision17 13y ago
  Now that you mention it, the setup I imagined is dang near identical to an SEM, but with atoms. All we need to do is replace the filament with a mass spectrometer's filter and bam! Instant micro-3D printer (where instant is ten-twenty years of R&D :). I'd be willing to devote a decade of my life working on that. As for the second half, I apologize. I didn't realize you were thinking in terms of the long now. I think you're completely correct: we will spend the time and effort to make it better and faster. I have no doubt industry will come through for us in this. We got to supercomputers in our pockets in less than one lifetime, after all!

marcosdumay 13y ago

> Get rid of the masking stage and you've got the missing link to 3D printing. But that would require nigh magical levels of control over a particle beam. Quite like in an electron microscope. Ok, most electron microscopes are way less precise than top of line lithography, but there there are some that are more. 3D printing with controlled ion deposition would be expensive as hell, but I see no reason why it could not be done. Anyway, I was talking about iterating the filter - add - subtract pattern. Our current low precision is the reason we only iterate a few times. With increased precision, we can do it more. Yep, any advance here requires years and a lot of investiment. But they always come through.

HCIdivision17 13y ago
Now that you mention it, the setup I imagined is dang near identical to an SEM, but with atoms. All we need to do is replace the filament with a mass spectrometer's filter and bam! Instant micro-3D printer (where instant is ten-twenty years of R&D :). I'd be willing to devote a decade of my life working on that. As for the second half, I apologize. I didn't realize you were thinking in terms of the long now. I think you're completely correct: we will spend the time and effort to make it better and faster. I have no doubt industry will come through for us in this. We got to supercomputers in our pockets in less than one lifetime, after all!