How does plasma power modern tech?

Microchips are essential to our daily lives. They’re in our phones, our aircraft and underpin the internet, just to name a few places. Modern computer chips are made of billions of tiny transistors, each only tens of atoms wide. How can we possibly manufacture such intricate and complex electronics at such a tiny scale? The answer: with plasma. Andrew “Tasman” Powis, a computational research associate at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, explains how his work developing computer simulation tools is advancing the tech industry’s ability to create faster microchips with plasma, the electrically charged fourth state of matter. In the area of microelectronics, PPPL collaborates with the semiconductor industry, academic institutions and the Department of Energy (DOE) lab complex to develop better ways to make next-generation materials and manufacturing processes for computer chips, memory and sensors. The Lab’s expertise in low-temperature plasmas, which are used in nearly half of all semiconductor fabrication steps, is transforming a trial-and-error approach into one based on science. . Learn more: https://www.pppl.gov/research/applied-materials-and-sustainability-sciences 🎬 Video credits: Filmed and edited by Michael Livingston, produced by Gwen McNamara ➡️ Follow us @PPPLab https://www.facebook.com/PPPLab https://twitter.com/PPPLab https://www.instagram.com/ppplab/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/princeton-plasma-physics-lab