25th April 2010

The microchip (integrated circuit / IC) today celebrates its 50^th birthday. Fairchild Semiconductor's Robert Noyce received the first patent for a commercially available silicon IC on the 25^th of April 1961.

 

A competitive history

First envisioned in 1952 by Geoffrey Drummer of the UK's Telecom Research Establishment (TRE), the IC has a competitive history. Texas Instruments' Jack Kilby is widely credited with independently co-inventing the microchip, using the semiconducting element germanium.  In the UK, Plessey Semiconductor was also independently developing silicon and gallium arsenide based IC designs.

The Fairchild IC, a logic circuit, contained one transistor switch, three resistors and a capacitor. Since this time, competition between rival companies has led to the transistor density doubling and cost halving approximately every two years, an observation known as Moore's Law.

Today's cutting edge chips contain billions of transistors, are capable of trillions of calculations per second and integrate a raft of functionalities - from wireless connectivity to chemical analysis to image sensing.

 

A British success story

The microchip's power, functionality and low cost have led to its application in virtually every part of modern life. According Dr. Derek Boyd, CEO of NMI, the UK's leading electronics trade body, "the UK's microelectronics sector continues to be at the forefront of this innovation,"

"UK based researchers, technologists and manufacturers are creating chips and systems capable of genetic disease detection^[1], determining the build up of pollutants in the oceans^[2], emitting light that sterilises drinking water or medical instruments^[3], analysing the structural integrity of high-speed rail lines^[4], and the early identification of injuries in racehorses^[5]."

The UK is home to over 40 per cent of Europe's independent electronic design community^[6]. Its 11,500 companies and 250,000^[6] people form an ecosystem worth £23 billion per year to the British economy^[6].

"You only have to look inside your mobile phone to see the British contribution," continued Dr. Boyd. "You will likely find an ARM processor, a CSR Bluetooth and GPS chip, a Dialog Semiconductor power management device and an Imagination Technologies graphics core."

NMI, has also highlighted transport, digital media, communications, healthcare and smart energy grids as key growth areas for the electronics industry here.

 

The next challenge: A more human way of processing

In a few cycles of Moore's Law the transistor will shrink to hit the atomic size barrier. As this is approached electrons become harder to control and variability is introduced; making many ICs unusable and reliable manufacturing processes prohibitively expensive. But an answer may come from the brain's evolution.

The University of Manchester's Professor Steve Furber, runs the SpiNNaker project, which is attempting to model the brain and its behaviour, "Unlike silicon, the brain's billions of neurons and countless reconfigurable connections, isn't particularly affected by variability."

SpiNNaker has funding for a machine that runs 1 million ARM processor cores and aims to more accurately "understand the link between the brain's biological structure and its functionality. By determining how it copes with this variability, we can start to create tolerant chips that cope with these defects."

 

Moving beyond Moore's Law

An end to Moore's Law will not be the end of progress, however, and the UK is at the forefront of research into new microchip materials and configurations.

NMI's Dr. Boyd stating, "it is very easy to get excited about the future application of IC technology for the next 50 years too. Industry is already creating 3D IC structures in order to break free of Moore's Law and then there are new technologies to consider such as plastic electronics, MEMs, and carbon nanotubes which increase the scope for semiconductor innovation."

 

Citations  and image references available by downloading the full press release here