IBM Corp is pioneering X-ray lithorgraphy, but now Intel Corp, Santa Clara-based Ultratech Stepper and San Diego-based Jamar Technology Co are to collaborate with researchers at the US government’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on ?25.2m chip manufacturing deal. The four-year agreement is one of the largest signed by the laboratory to date. It is part of a broader national programme in soft X-ray projection lithography, which mass produces images or patterns in the chip manufacture, which involves Sandia National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and a number of US microelectronics companies. The new group wants to use the X-ray technique to develop memory chips that are 10 times faster and have 1,000 times more memory capacity than today’s chips. Researchers believe that it offers a means for US companies to leapfrog their foreign competitors in chip production and to resume leadership of the microelectronics industry lost a decade ago. They estimate that the market will be worth over $1,000,000m by the turn of the century.
